CATTLE EPIDEMIC IN VICTORIA.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1469, 19 April 1873, Page 2

CATTLE EPIDEMIC IN VICTORIA.

An unaccountable epidemic among battle ' rhas broken out in Victoria. On the Gee- -r long common fifteen head died in a few -• days, and at Castlemaine up fewer.- than seventy head died suddenly. ; Various, ,-. conjectures as to the cause have been ' made, but all the reports which have been received by the Chief Inspector of Scab , ,- from the' officers deputed to inquire into . the fatality, place it beyond doubt that it: .> is attributable to the eating of a poisonous plant of the. lobelia genus. Dr Mueller gays this is W class of highly poisonous ' plants. Though rare in Europe, it is common enough in the Southern States of . America, and is to be found at the' Cape of Good Hope and in India. 1 It gives out a milky juice when bruised, which is acrid aud in some of the species so intensely so as to prove dangerous or even fatal if the ' -• stomach is gorged with the plant. Ie is generally to be found in places where the $ ordinary herbage is scant, and .as it grows : ' in favorite spots somewhat luxuriantly, cattle partake of it greedily, and, in chewing the cud, extract all its poisonous' qnalities, and suddenly drop down dead. * The lobelia inflata, another of- the species, goes by the name of the Indian tobacco plant, and is a strong narcotic. The only method; of getting .rid of. it, as it is .a, perennial, is to plough. the ground arid.^ sow some quick-growing perennial grasses. * Specimens of the plant, and its blue flower, have been handed to. Dr-Mueller, who has expressed himself very confidently on the : subject, and Mr Graham Mitchell, who was despatched to iGeelong to make a post mortem examination of some of the cattle which' recently died there, attributes the cause of death solely to the eating of this poisonous herb. The 'communications which the Chief Secretary has received on the subject are :to;theTsame purport. At a meeting of the rnana-;" gers of the Newtown and Chilwell common, the. herdsman expressed the opinion that the.,heat or, some atmospheric dis- ''' turbance had produced the epidemic, and ' added that the poisonous flower that had ' ; been referred to \?as freely eaten by .his . own horses without proving in the remotest degree hurtful.