Dictionary:

lathyrism

  (lăth'ə-rĭz'əm)

Also from Answers.com... Allergies Health videos on seasonal allergies, including allergy treatment options.

A disease of humans and animals caused by eating legumes of the genus Lathyrus and characterized by spastic paralysis, hyperesthesia, and paresthesia.

[From New Latin Lathyrus, genus name, from Greek lathuros, a type of pea, from Akkadian ladiru, type of plant.]

Nerve damage associated with high intakes of Lathyrus sativus (kesari dhal, chickling pea, chickling vetch). The crop is often grown in dry districts in Asia and north Africa together with wheat. Normally little is eaten, but when there is a drought and the wheat crop is poor, the dhal predominates and is eaten as a major food.

A disease of humans and animals caused by eating legumes of the genus Lathyrus and characterized by spastic paralysis, hyperesthesia, and paresthesia.

A morbid condition of humans marked by spastic paraplegia, pain, hyperesthesia and paresthesia, due to ingestion of the seeds of leguminous plants of the genus Lathyrus, which includes many kinds of peas.
In animals there are reports of two basic groups of disease, neurolathyrism, including transient laryngeal paralysis in horses associated with degenerative changes in the vagus and recurrent laryngeal nerves, and osteolathyrism manifested by a variety of skeletal changes. Hepatitis, splenitis and dissecting aortic aneurysm are also recorded.