[It is stated in our last issue that several animals had been poisoned in the district lately by a weed, which was growing extensively. Some of the weed is now on view at Mr. Say's shop,1 and was obtained near Mr. Loveday's place, in Benalla East. Mr. Say forwarded a specimen to Baron Von Mueller, who states that it is a well-known virulent poisonous plant called Euphorbia Drummondi. The symptoms are in the first place similar to internal inflammation, difficult breathing, and then death from strichinine.2 The remedy is to administer every hour one point of oil, and then one ounce of laudanom,3 to relieve the pain. The plant grows along the ground similar to dogweed, the sap being milky and bitter to taste and very acrid.]4
Euphorbia Drummondi
Victor Say operated a mixed business as a chemist, newsagent and seedsman in Benaalla (see his advertisement in North Eastern ensign (Benalla), I May 1895, p. 3, col. b).
strychnine?
laudanum?
Some of the information given in the report may not have been supplied by M. A report in the Australasian, 'Euphorbia drummondi', 17 March 1894, p. 8, noting 'several cases of horses being poisoned this season in the Donald and Benalla districts', republished, without acknowledgement of the source, M's account of the problems with the plant (B94.03.05) that had initially appeared as a note in the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria in 1888 (B88.13.13).
Letter not found. The text given here is from Benalla standard, 23 February 1894, p. 2. The report was summarized in Yackandandah times, 2 March 1894, p. 3, and possibly elsewhere.
Please cite as “FVM-94-02-00g,” 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