Strychnine poisoning is most commonly due to over-doses of the drug accidentally given during treatment.
The symptoms comprise tetanic convulsions, hyperæsthesia and dyspnœa. As a result of muscular rigidity, the ribs cannot be moved, and death by asphyxia follows.
Treatment comprises the use of anæsthetics, and the administration of chloral hydrate, as long as the contractions continue. Bromide of potassium, tobacco, tannin, etc., are also useful.
The chief part of the botanical descriptions in the following list have been extracted, by permission, from the Annual Report for 1898 of the United States Bureau of Animal Industry, p. 392. To Dr. D. E. Salmon, who gave this permission, and who also kindly supplied the blocks, the writer (Mr. Dollar) desires to express his very sincere thanks. Considerable modifications have been made, and in the case of the more important poisonous plants, details of symptoms and treatment have been added.
LIST OF PLANTS POISONOUS TO STOCK.[[2]]
[2]. The names of plants proved beyond doubt to be poisonous to stock are marked with an asterisk. The evidence in regard to the toxic properties of others is not in every case entirely convincing, though there is good ground for strong suspicion.
PERISPORACEÆ (ROT-MOULD FAMILY).
Aspergillus glaucus.—This is the common flocculent woolly mould which sometimes develops to a dangerous extent on corn, oats, and other food grains which have either been harvested before full maturity or been stored in a damp place. The mouldy growth is pure white at first, but changes with the ripening of the spores to gray and then green. The spores are apparently the cause of the so-called enzootic cerebritis, or “staggers,” of horses, which, during the winter of 1898–99, was reported as having caused very heavy losses in the southern portion of the United States. European investigators have shown that the spores of this mould will grow within the living body if they are introduced into the blood. Death is probably caused by some poison which is simultaneously produced with the mould in the body of the animal.