It acts as an irritant to the digestive tract, causing dribbling of ropy saliva from the mouth, diarrhea, tenesmus, and loss of appetite, with increased temperature and cold extremities.
"Special Report on Diseases of Cattle"
U.S. Department of Agriculture J.R. Mohler
But I never got half the heart-ripping suspense out of these pastimes that I did out of a certain few party drawings, when I waited for my name to come out and wondered, while I looked across the hall at the girl section, whether I was going to draw the one girl in the world, any one of four or five mighty interesting runners-up, or the fat little girl in the corner with ropy hair and the general look of a person who had had a bright idea a few years before and had been convalescing from it ever since.
"At Good Old Siwash"
George Fitch
The ropy-thing right across is the Equator itself; and the things that look like rocks are the two giants Moar and Koar, that keep the Equator in order.
"Just So Stories"
Rudyard Kipling