209 



Inquiries addressed to two other postmasters in the same 

 county elicited replies fully confirmatory of Mr. Boyd's surpris- 

 ing assertions. In other words, three separate individuals, miles 

 apart, with no opportunity for collusion, and with no apparent 

 motive for deception, agreed in declaring that the fruit of Caly- 

 ca7ithus was fatally poisonous to cattle. Nevertheless, their as- 



sertions were discredited because they were not scientific ob- 

 servers, because of the long-established reputation of the plant 

 as perfectly harmless, and especially because, in an experiment 

 made by Dr. T. F. Allen last December, the contents o{ ty^o 

 pods, administered to a dog, produced no visible effect upon the 

 animal. In this state of the case, and in view of the difficulty of 

 making experiments here upon cattle and sheep, the evidence of 

 a competent local authority became very desirable. This is fur- 

 nished in a letter dated June ii, 1 888, from Dr. B. W. Sparks, of 



McMinnville, Tenn., who writes in the following unequivocal 

 strain : 



In regard to the '' bubby,*' "sweet shrub," {Calycanthus 

 glancus, Willd.), if you ask me, *' Do I believe this plant to be 

 poisonous to cattle and sheep ? " most assuredly it is. It will 

 poison cattle, sheep, goats, deer and all other ruminating animals, 



but does not have any effect on the horse, mule and ass. At 



least this is my experience. It will poison the squirrel, rat and 

 *^og, when ground or unground. I cannot speak for the hog 

 family. I have known and made many experiments on rats and 

 ^ogs ; it is as sure death to them as strychnine or arsenic; symp- 

 toms in over-doses identical with those of strychnine, which I 

 need not repeat In my opinion it has an alkaloid allied to 

 strychnia. 



This alkaloid, named calycanthine, has been successfully ex- 

 tracted by Dr. R. G. Eccles, who also detected traces of a second 

 alkaloid, provisionally termed calycanthoidine. 



Upon the whole, despite the negative result of Dr. Allen's 

 experiment (with an evidently insufficient dose), it seems now 

 pretty well established that the seed of Calycanthus contains a 

 virulent toxic quality. Some further scientific experiments are 

 still very desirable, however, to determine fully its exact charac- 

 ter, the nature and limitation of its effects, and especially its pos- 

 sible value as a medicine. 



E. E. Sterns. 



