12 THE ROLE OF ALGAE AND PLANKTON IN MEDICINE 



Sauvageau and Moreau 77 reported that Vucus serratus and Laminaria 

 fiexicaulis formed excellent animal aliment. Adrian 78 found in animal 

 experiments that seaweed caused an increase in weight proportional to 

 the weight of the material ingested; seaweed was also credited with 

 stimulating the assimilation of conventional nutrients. In other studies 

 at the Sorbonne, cats and chickens were well maintained on seaweed 

 feedings. Gloess 79 found that macroscopic algae, when cleared of their 

 potassium, bromide, and iodide salts, made a satisfactory replacement for 

 oats in horses' diets; they could also be used as a supplement to standard 

 rations for swine and poultry. Beckman 80 successfully maintained dogs 

 and hens on a baked loaf containing a mixture of ground seaweed, rye, 

 and potato flour. Irish moss was also used to feed cows, calves, and pigs. 

 Freudenthal 65 in 1920 reported the use of seaweed as cattle fodder in Ice- 

 land. During World War II, a dried seaweed meal was prepared in a 

 factory in County Clare, Ireland, for use as a stock feed. 81 Following a 

 series of studies with pigs, it was concluded that the main value of the meal 

 lay in improving the total amount of digestible ration. Use of seaweed 

 for fodder has also increased in Sweden as a result of scarcities occurring 

 during the Second World War. 



To guard against adverse effects from seaweeds used in their entirety, 

 it has been found advantageous to rinse the algae first in fresh water to 

 leach out excess salts. 47 In some of the feeding experiments reported, 

 the animals required from several days to a week or more to accommodate 

 their dietary habits to a predominantly seaweed ration. Undernourished 

 animals often responded better to algal diets than did well nourished 

 beasts. From this it might be surmised that seaweed supplements had 

 overcome some existing deficiencies. 



Palsson and Grimsson 8 - have described in seaweed-fed lambs a 

 syndrome demonstrated to be associated with a generalized spotty neural 

 demyelinization. The clinical picture resembles that in the previously re- 

 ported "swayback," a disease characterized by muscular weakness, incoordi- 

 nation, paralysis, and death. 83 Palsson and Grimsson state that supple- 

 menting the diet of the ewes with copper during the latter part of 

 pregnancy markedly decreased the incidence, morbidity, and mortality of 

 this malady. They do not make clear why supplemental copper should be 

 either necessary or helpful, since the offending seaweeds showed a re- 

 latively high copper content. It is possible that something in the seaweed 

 (or some contaminant on it) may have interfered with the proper utiliza- 

 tion of copper, or perhaps markedly increased the need for it. In an 



