32 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



hydrocyanic acid as a result of the action of enzymes on more highly 

 complex bodies." 



Ball* in 1902 stated that at that time there had been no official 

 reports to his office of cases of poisoning by Johnson grass, but that 

 there were some newspaper statements to that effect. He thought 

 these accounts were probably not authentic, but stated that "since 

 Johnson grass is closely related to sorghum, which is known to be 

 poisonous under some circumstances, it would not be surprising if 

 Johnson grass should also be poisonous under like conditions. * * * 

 In comparison with the great number of cattle fed or pastured in 

 Johnson grass, the reported cases of poisoning are extremely rare." 



The first report of the poisonous action of Johnson grass which 

 reached the Department came from Miles City, Mont. Mr. William 

 Story reported that he and a neighbor had lost several head of cattle 

 after they had eaten small quantities of the grass, and that they had 

 died very suddenly. Mr. Story suggested that there was "something 

 peculiarly poisonous about the grass." The Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture in publishing this report stated that " although the grass has been 

 cultivated in the South for forty or fifty years, no similar charges have 

 been made against it."'^ 



In India this plant is widely used as a fodder for cattle,^^ and the 

 natives make use of the seeds for food. It has been noted there that 

 deaths in cattle frequentl}^ occur when, on account of the failure of 

 rain, the plants which have reached a certain size become stunted and 

 withered. The toxic principle appears simultaneously over a wide 

 area, but soon disappears if a rainfall occurs.^ The deaths of cattle 

 have been attributed by some to an insect living upon the plant, and 

 in Australia it is the belief that Sorghum vulgcure^ which also yields 

 hydrocyanic acid, becomes more poisonous when attacked b}^ an insect 

 during a drought. A similar observation has been made with Scyr- 

 ghummdgare in the Sudan. Balfour-^ found that one specimen of the 

 plant which harbored aphids yielded more hydrocyanic acid than a 



^Dunstan, W. R., and Henry, T. A., The Nature and Origin of the Poison of Lotus 

 Arabicus, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, 1901, vol. 194, B., p. 515; Dunstan, W. R., 

 and Henry, T. A., Cyanogenesis in Plants, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, 1902, 

 vol. 199, A., p. 899; Slade, Henry B., Prussic Acid in Sorghum, Jour. Amer. Cheni. 

 Soc, 1903, vol. 25, pp. 55-59; Slade, Henry B., Study of the Enzymes of Green 

 Sorghum, Fifteenth Annual Report, Agricultural Experiment Station of Nebraska, 

 1902, pp. 55-62; Briinnich, J. C, Hydrocyanic Acid in Fodder-plants, Jour. Chem. 

 Soc, 1903, vol. 83, part 2, pp. 788-796. 



&Bul. No. 11, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 p. 23. 



c Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1885, p. 74. 



t^Duthie, J. F. Fodder Grasses of Northern India, 1888, p. 41. 



« Pease, H. T. Poisoning of Cattle by Andropogon Sorghum. Jour. Compar. Med. 

 and Vet. Arch., vol. 18, 1897, p. 679. See also Agr. Ledger, 1896, No. 24. 



/Balfour, Andrew. Cyanogenesis in Sorghum Yulgare. First Report, Wellcome 

 Research Laboratory, at Gordon Mem. College, Khartum, 1904, p. 47. 



