1080 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



The supposed relationship of white snakeroot to milk sickness or trembles, 

 A. C. CuAWFoiU) (U. S. Dcpt. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 121, pp. 5-20, pi. 1).— 

 A critical review is given of the literature relating to milk sickness and its sup- 

 posed cause and particularly of the experiments of E. L. Moseley along this line. 

 The conclusion is reached that Euputor'unn (ir/cratoides has not been shown to 

 be a poisonous plant nor to be the cause of milk sickness. 



An outbreak of milk sickness which occurred in Illinois gave the author oppor- 

 tunity to investigate this trouble. Extracts of white snakeroot were fed to cats 

 and dogs without producing any pathological symptoms. A lamb, weighing 

 about 25 kg., ate .58 gm. of the fresh plant without being badly affected. The 

 author ate over 300 gm. of an extract and 100 gm. of the dried plant without 

 exi)eriencing any serious effects. The conclusion is drawn that white snakeroot 

 is not the cause of milk sickness. The disease is more probably of bacterial 

 origin. 



Experiments with feeding stuffs suspected of being injurious, O. Appel 

 and F. Koske {Arh. K. Biol. Anst. Land u. Forstic, 5 {1901), No. 7, pp. SGI- 

 376). — Wheat smut was fed to pigs, chickens, and pigeons by mixing it in known 

 quantities in wholesome food. This material produced no pathological symp- 

 toms and no noticeable disturbances of any sort. 



Likewise with diseased and rotten potatoes, it was found impossible to cause 

 any bad effects by feeding them to pigs and cattle. Incidentally it was ob- 

 served that the spores of wheat smut and Bacillus phytoplitJiorus were almost 

 completely destroyed by passing through the animal organism. Apparently, 

 therefore, these diseases are not likely to be transmitted through manure. 



The mechanism of the bactericidal action of the organism in infections, 

 N. Pane {Ventbl. Bald, [etc.], 1. Abt., Orig., >ih (1907), No. 6, pp. oSo-S'fl, phi).— 

 In the presence of antibodies found in the blood serum pathogenic bacteria first 

 undergo changes demonstrable by the microscope and are later swallowed by 

 the phagocytes, in which their remains may be demonstrated as granules by 

 staining with methylene blue. The microscopic extracellular change is not 

 demonstrable in cases where phagocytosis takes place rapidly. It was observed 

 that in experimental anthrax in rabbits in which the phagocytic action was 

 slow, granules appear in the anthrax bacillus and may be readily demonstrated 

 with methylene blue. A slow destruction of bacteria in immunized animals 

 which possess a highly active therapeutic serum is not to be confused with the 

 same phenomenon which occurs in chronic cases of the disease 



Certain phenomena of inactivation and of inhibition exhibited by pre- 

 cipitin antisera, I), A. Welch and H. G. Chapman {Proc. Rag. »SV>e. [London], 

 Srr. B, 7!) (1907), No. B 534. pp. J,(j5-Jf73).—lt is maintained that inactivation 

 and inhibition are separable phenomena, the latter appearing only after antisera 

 have been heated to 75° C. Inhibition and solution of the precipitate by heated 

 antisera, however, are inseparable phenomena. It is claimed that considerable 

 evidence has been obtained which is incompatible with Ehrlich's theory of the 

 substances concerned in precipitin reactions. 



Transmission of rabies through the nasal mucous membrane, C. Fermi 

 (Ccnthl. Bakt. [etc.], 1. AM., Orig., 4', {1907), No. 6, pp. 502-50.',).— Mice and 

 rats are very susceptible to infection from rabies virus placed upon the nasal 

 mucous membrane. Nearly all of these animals thus contract a fatal infection. 

 Most of the rats thus infected showed i)aralysis on the sixth day and died on 

 the ninth day. Rabbits and guinea pigs are found to be far less susceptible to 

 this form of infection. 



Peculiar history and symptoms in a case of cachexia following rabies, 

 BoDEN (DeuL Ticrurztl. Wchnschr., 15 (1907), No. J,2, pp. 591, 592).— A clinical 

 description is given of the symptoms observed in a dog which had recovered 



