i' (the _Lathyrus sativus_ of
botanists), a kind of wild vetch, which, though not sown itself, is
left carelessly to grow among the wheat and other grain, and given in
the green and dry state to cattle, remained uninjured, and thrived
with great luxuriance.[11] In 1831 they reaped a rich crop of it from
the blighted wheat-fields, and subsisted upon its grain during that
and the following years, giving the stalks and leaves only to their
cattle. In 1833 the sad effects of this food began to manifest
themselves. The younger part of the population of this and the
surrounding villages, from the age of thirty downwards, began to be
deprived of the use of their limbs below the waist by paralytic
strokes, in all cases sudden, but in some cases more severe than in
others. About half the youth of this village of both sexes became
affected during the years 1833 and 1834, and many of them have lost
the use of their lower limbs entirely, and are unable to move. The
youth of the surrounding villages, in which the 'teori' from the same
causes formed the chief article of food during the years 1831 and
1832, have suffered to an equal degree. Since the year 1834 no new
case has occurred; but no person once attacked had been found to
recover the use of the limbs affected; and my tent was surrounded by
great numbers of the youth in different stages of the disease,
imploring my advice and assistance under this dreadful visitation.
Some of them were very fine-looking young men of good caste and
respectable families; and all stated that their pains and infirmities
were confined entirely to the parts below the waist. They described
the attack as coming on suddenly, often while the person was asleep,
and without any warning symptoms whatever; and stated that a greater
portion of the young men were attacked than of the young women. It is
the prevailing opinion of the natives throughout the country that
both horses and bullocks, which have been much fed upon 'teori', are
liable to lose the use of their limbs; but, if the poisonous
qualities abound more in the grain than in the stalk or leaves, man,
who eats nothing but the grain, must be more liable to suffer from
the use of this food than beasts, which eat it merely as they eat
grass or hay.

I sent the son of the head man of the village and another, who were
among the young people least affected, into Sagar with a letter to my
friend Dr. Foley, with a request that he would try what he could d