LILIACEÆ.
Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia L.). Owing to its habitat—damp woods—it is unlikely that stock will eat this plant, but it may be possible where fields border open woods in which it grows. No records of stock poisoning have been met with, but cases of poisoning in man are recorded, one due to eating a considerable number (30 to 40) of the berries, and symptoms of poisoning in a child four years of age who had eaten a few berries. In smaller quantities they are very poisonous to poultry. All parts are stated to be poisonous, especially the berries. Fatal poisonings are nil, or very rare if recorded.
Toxic Principle. Walz isolated the glucoside Paridin; and Esser states that the toxic property is due to a Saponin,—the bitter irritant glucoside Paristyphnin (C38H64O18), which is convertible into Paridin (C16H28O7 + 2H2O) and sugar.
Symptoms. The plant is emetic, purgative, intensely acrid, and narcotic. Poisoning up to the present only appears to have been recorded in fowls, the symptoms being intense local inflammation, narcotic effects, vomiting, colic, diarrhœa, stupefaction, convulsions, and paralysis (Müller).
REFERENCES.
[4], [16], [73], [76], [81], [130], [141], [190].
Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis, L.). This beautiful plant is only likely to induce poisoning of domestic animals at very rare intervals, as it occurs wild in only a few woods from Moray southwards, being, however, abundant in some districts. All parts are stated to be poisonous, especially the flowers. It has an acrid, bitter taste. Few cases of poisoning are recorded. Sheep and goats are believed to eat the leaves with impunity. The extract is so poisonous that four drops injected into the blood stream sufficed to kill a dog in ten minutes (Cornevin). The leaves have been known to kill geese and fowls.
Toxic Principle. All parts of the plant contain the bitter poisonous glucoside Convallamarin (C23H44O12), the glucoside Paridin (C16H28O7 + 2H2O), and the glucoside Convallarin (C34H62O11)—the first a dangerous purgative, and the last a cardiac poison resembling Digitalis. Convallamarin is a very poisonous crystalline substance, with at first a bitter and afterwards a sweetish taste.
Symptoms. The action of this plant on the animal organism is not yet clearly known, but it is stated to have marked emetic and purgative action. Taken in moderate quantities a period of retardation of the heart and lung action is followed by a period in which the heart action is intermittent, and there are stoppages in respiration, and vomiting. Taken in large quantities, the first of these periods is extremely short, the pulse soon becomes rapid and small, respiration is quickened, and the heart action ceases (Cornevin).
Pott observes that the leaves cause stupefaction, convulsions, and death after a few hours in the case of geese. He cites a case in which ten fowls ate the leaves and nine died.
REFERENCES.
[52], [73], [76], [81], [190], [203], [205], [213].
Meadow Saffron (Colchicum autumnale L.). The Meadow Saffron, Autumn Crocus, or Naked Ladies, as it is variously named, occurs in meadows in many districts in England and Wales. All parts are poisonous, both in the green state and when dried, as it possibly may be, in hay. It has caused extensive losses of live stock, and the greatest care should be taken to eradicate it from grass land. The leaves and seed-vessels are produced in spring, and the flowers from August to October—and it is at these two periods that cases of poisoning by this plant are most frequent, though, as stated, it may be included in hay. Many horses, cattle, and pigs have been killed by Meadow Saffron, though cattle commonly avoid it. Sheep and goats are believed to be very slightly affected. Children and fowls died at Schorren (Canton Berne) from eating the seeds, and there have been many cases of human poisoning due both to eating the seeds and the bulbs. In Staffordshire, Mr J. C. Rushton reported some years ago[[4]] that in one year a farmer lost seventeen milking cows; in 1908 he lost seven calves; and in 1909 he lost a number of sheep and cows. It was then discovered that the field in which the animals grazed contained “any quantity of Meadow Saffron and Water Hemlock,” and this was the cause of the losses. Horses and cattle are more commonly poisoned than other domesticated animals. Johnson and Sowerby record the case of a woman who ate the corms in mistake for onions at Covent Garden, and died; and state that deer and cattle have been killed by the leaves. Kanngiesser notes that this species is the most toxic of German plants, and that in cases of human poisoning the mortality is 90 per cent., children being chiefly affected. Cornevin’s experiments showed that 8 to 10 grammes of green leaves per kilogramme of live weight—say 3 to 5 lb. for an average cow—was sufficient to kill ruminants; while 30 centigrammes of corms per kilogramme of live weight sufficed to kill pigs—say 4½ oz. for a pig of 200 lb. live weight. Barret and Remlinger (Veterinary Journal, 1912, p. 306) record the sudden illness of 31 out of 51 cattle, and 5 of them died.
[4]. Staffordshire Weekly Sentinel, Aug. 21st, 1909.
The toxic principle is cumulative, that is, small quantities of the plant eaten regularly may result in poisoning, owing to the poison being slowly eliminated by the kidneys. Indeed, cases have been recorded in which the poison has been secreted and eliminated in the milk of cows and so has caused poisoning of both calves and infants.
Toxic Principle. Meadow Saffron contains in all parts the acrid, poisonous alkaloid Colchicine (C22H25NO6) stated by Esser to occur to the extent of 0·2 per cent. in the corms, 0·4 to 0·6 per cent. in the seed coats, but only traces in the leaves. Hertel obtained 0·38 to 0·41 per cent. of alkaloid from the seeds, Farr and Wright from 0·46 to 0·95 per cent., and Carr and Reynolds 0·12 to 0·57 per cent.; the U.S. Pharmacopœia, 1905, required a Colchicine content of 0·45 per cent. in the seeds, and 0·35 per cent. in the corms (Allen).
Symptoms. After small, but not fatal doses there is loss of appetite, suppression of rumination, salivation, light colic, diarrhœa and voiding of small quantities of urine. Blood has been observed in the milk of affected cows. Larger and fatal quantities cause total loss of appetite and sensation, stupefaction, loss of consciousness, dilatation of pupils, unsteady gait, and even paralysis of limbs, sweating, severe colic, and bloody diarrhœa, strangury and bloody urination; rapid, small, and finally imperceptible pulse, laboured breathing; and death in from one to three days. Where recovery takes place it is very slow (12 to 14 days according to Cornevin).
Cornevin draws attention to the fact that, as the symptoms do not occur until several hours after ingestion, by which time the poison must be partly distributed, the poison is very dangerous and difficult to combat, attempts at vomiting or evacuation, whether spontaneous or caused therapeutically, having little chance of ridding the organism of the poison. Cornevin’s account of the symptoms shows that at first there is abundant salivation, with constriction of the throat, and dysphagia; then nausea with vomiting; colic; abundant, repeated and diarrhœic evacuations, which at the end become dysenteric with painful tenesmus; abundant urination; short, accelerated and difficult respiration, with incoordination in the thoracic and abdominal movements. The circulatory functions are modified only in fatal cases, when the pulse is small and intermittent towards the end. There is finally a notable drop in temperature, shown by the coldness of the skin. Death occurs in from 16 hours to 6 days after ingestion. During the last few hours the animals are stretched at full length and are incapable of getting up. There may be prolapsus of the rectum; the eye is deeply sunk; sensibility is deadened and death is due to stoppage of respiration.
In the horse, there are spasmodic movements of the hind-quarters and excessive excitement of the urinary genital organs. In cattle there is cessation of rumination, grinding of teeth, dryness of muzzle, ptyalism, groaning, painful colic, dysentery, deeply sunken and watery eyes, anus wide open, and evacuation of very fœtid, blackish, glareous matter round the excrement. In cows there may be suppression of milk, and abortion. In the pig there is abundant salivation and vomiting, and the animal keeps its snout buried in the litter. There is also extremely fœtid diarrhœa, with dysentery.
REFERENCES.
[4], [16], [27], [73], [81], [128], [130], [141], [148], [151],