In _cattle_, the symptoms observed one hour after eating are restlessness, salivation, and grinding of the teeth. Excitement and colic are followed sometimes by coughing, this state lasting from five to eight hours. There is then a period of coma, characterized by permanent decubitus, repeated fœtid diarrhœa, hurried and plaintive respiration, accelerated and gradually weakening pulse, a gradual loss of motor and sensory powers, and a progressive decline in temperature. Death occurs in twenty-four hours. In the case of _pigs_, the animal grunts, lies down and remains thus with its snout embedded in the straw. There is vomiting, more or less violent colic and diarrhœa, the evacuation consisting of bad-smelling, spumous fæcal matter. At times there are clonic contractions. Young pigs are most susceptible. Pott cites cases in which abortion was a feature of the poisoning, both in cows and pigs. The results of numerous experiments which he quotes (among others some carried out for the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture) are very contradictory, a small quantity causing death in some animals, while others of the same species were left unharmed by large quantities. He ascribes this to the very variable proportions of the poison present in the seeds. REFERENCES. 4, 16, 28, 46, 52, 53, 63, 76, 81, 82, 144, 161, 172, 184, 190, 203, 205, 213, 249. HYPERICINEÆ. =St. John’s Wort= (_Hypericum perforatum_ L.). There appears to be no record of poisoning of live stock by this plant in Britain, but Cornevin records that it injured breeding mares fed on lucerne containing it in large proportion. Drying in converting into hay did not render it innocuous. It is only poisonous if eaten in considerable quantity, and in general animals are not likely to eat much of it voluntarily, owing to its resinous odour when crushed, and a bitter and slightly saline taste. _Toxic Principle._ The poisonous properties of St. John’s Wort have not been fully investigated, but it is stated to contain an oil and an acrid bitter resin. Ewart says that it “contains an oil whose medicinal value was formerly highly esteemed; but this oil, and the woody nature of the plant, render it somewhat injurious in fodder.” Summers says (_Journ. Agric. S. Australia_, Sept. 1911, p. 144) that “it is reported to be decidedly injurious, causing horses who eat it to break out in sores, while milk cows have a tendency to dry off owing to its effect on the system.” _Symptoms._ In mares, dullness, sinking of head, loss of appetite, slackening of pulse and respiration, dilatation of pupils, defective sight, and lips purple (Müller). REFERENCES. 63, 82, 117, 190, 203. GERANIACEÆ.