The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 133
browsing in meadows where the plant is most abundant.
Horses with their keen discriminating faculty uniformly
avoid it, and hence its effects have rarely been observed
unless it was given chopped up and mixed with corn.
There are no less than fifteen species of ranunculus or
crowfoot, natives of these islands, and common in our
meadows and pastures, and most of them have more or
less irritating properties ; those that are esteemed most
irritating I have named above. The genus ranunculus is
characteristic of a cold damp climate, poor wet soil, and
is less acrid when grown in such situation than when
grown in warm climates. It is asserted that an annual
species, the B. avensis, has been proved to be fatal to
sheep in Italy. Every part of the plant is pervaded by
an acrid principle, which is volatile, and dissipated by
heat or drying. The juice ol the plant is a powerful
vesicant, and prior to the introduction of cantharides,
was used by medical men for that purpose. Owing,
perhaps, to its universality and abundance in our
pastures, it has become to be regarded as innocuous, or
at least without suspicion of being productive of any bad
effects. No cases, so far as I am aware, are recorded of
its effects on cattle or sheep in this country, although
its effects upon the latter have been observed on the
Continent. Cases crop up from time to time in which
horses are thought to be suffering from influenza, when,
after a thorough investigation, the mischief is found in
the horse having had lawn-mowings given it in which
was an abundance of buttercup. The symptoms of
poisoning by buttercup are first, a spasmodic action of
the glottis, shortening and rigidity of the muscles of the