Melbourne botanic Garden,
28. febr 1863.
Sir
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication, dated 11 febr.,1 accompanied by a sample of the plant, which is tought2 by some settlers of the South East districts of South Australia to be the cause of the death of sheep & cattle in those parts of your colony, where the so called coast disease prevails.3
In reply I beg to inform you for communication to the honorable W. Milne,4 that the plant submitted for my examination, and of which in conjunction with Professor Dr Miquel of Utrecht I have given an account some years since in the Nederl. Kruidk. Archief under the name of Opercularia turpis,5 is not known to me to produce any directly deleterious or poisonous effect on pasture-animals, altho' its peculiarly strong odor may have readily induced the belief, that this plant might be one of noxious properties. I am strengthened in this opinion by the circumstance, that this kind of Opercularia in not everywhere to be found, where the coast disease exists amongst sheep; whilst it again occurs in some mountainous localities, where sheep are depastured without losses.
Having hitherto failed to acquire any positive evidence that the coast-disease is concomitant to directly poisonous herbs, I am inclined to adscribe this malady mainly if not solely to climatic influences in localities damp and unsheltered, whereby the health of the animals is gradually impaired, death being finally caused by disease of the liver.
Whether and how far any peculiar vegetation of the coast district may contribute towards the development of the disease is hitherto not ascertained and could only be learnt by the direct experiment of feeding some sheep for a limited period solely with such plants as are held in suspicion of possessing directly noxiouis properties.
The small sample of the Opercularia, which the honorable the Commissioner if Crownlands caused to be submitted to me had when administered to a Rabbit no effect on the animal.
For ascertaining the effect of the Opercularia as an exclusive food of sheep I had no means available, the plant not occurring in the vicinity of this city.
I need not state, that on receiving a larger supply of the plant I shall be happy to give this subject my renewed attention.
I avail myself of this opportunity to express my thanks to the honorable Mr Milne for his permission of my perusal of the botanical collections formed during Mr J. Macd. Stuarts last expedition, and on which I am now engaged to furnish a report.6
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
your most obedient servant
Ferd. Mueller, M.D.
Gov. Botanist.
T.7 J. Wildman Esqr
Secretary of the Crownlands Department and Immigration Office
Adelaide.
Opercularia turpis
Letter not found.
thought?
This letter was forwarded to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, H. B. T. Strangways, and a letter of thanks was sent to M on 24 March; letter not found.
William Milne was South Australia's Commissioner of Public Works at the time, although he had previously been Commissioner of Crown Lands at times up to 1860 and returned to it later than this correspondence (ADB).
Published, using M's herbarium name, in Miquel (1856), pp. 109-10.
Included in B63.05.01.
M wrote the wrong initial.
Please cite as “FVM-63-02-28,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on