1916] VETERINARY MEDICINE. 781 



as a poisonous plant. Inasmuch as the experimental work seems to show quite 

 conclusively that sheep may feed upon larkspurs with entire impunity it is 

 desirable in some cases, where there is an especial abundance of larkspur, to 

 use the ranges for sheep rather than for cattle or to combine sheep grazing and 

 cattle grazing in such a manner as to keep the areas of low larlispur eaten 

 down by the sheep." 



A list of the more Important literature relating to the subject and cited by 

 the authors is appended. 



Poisonous plants and stock poisoning on the ranges of Montana, D. B. 

 Swingle and H. Welch (Montana Sta. Circ. 51 (1916), pp. 7S-95, figs. 11). — 

 This is a summary of information, prepared for the stockmen of the State, 

 which describes the more important poisonous plants to be avoided. 



The nature of the disease due to the exclusive diet of oats in gmnea pigs 

 and rabbits, C. Funk {.Jour. Biol. Chem., 25 (1916), No. 3, pp. 409-416). — In- 

 vestigations were undertaken to study the effect of feeding oats to rabbits, 

 guinea pigs, and rats, with special reference to the effect of the addition of 

 sodium bicarbonate and the action of antiscorbutics. 



It was found that the symptoms that develop in rabbits fed on oats are due 

 possibly to acidosis and not to scurvy, judging from the beneficial effect of 

 sodium bicarbonate and the ineffectiveness of the antiscorbutics. Guinea pigs 

 on the same diet are not influenced by the alkali and respond so slightly to the 

 action of antiscorbutics that the identity of this condition with human scurvy 

 seems doubtful. Rats can live on oats for a considerable time, but not on 

 autoclaved oats, and young rats fail to grow on this diet. 



The effect of benzene on the production of antibodies, L. Hektoen (Jour. 

 Infect. Diseases, 19 (1916), No. 1, pp. 69-84, figs. 2). — In the experiments re- 

 ported injections of a mixture of benzene and olive oil in doses of approximately 

 1 cc. per kilogram of body weight into rabbits, at about the same time that 

 sheep blood was injected, greatly reduced the production of specific precipitin 

 and lysin. In considerably larger doses the same effect was observed on the 

 production of lysin in white rats. " The reduction of antibody formation under 

 these circumstances is associated with grave lesions in the maiTow, with leu- 

 copenia, and other changes characteristic of benzene intoxication, the leucocytes 

 in the rabbit being of reduced phagocytic power." 



It is indicated that in the dog 0.02 cc. of benzene per kilogram of body weight 

 may cause a leucocytosis associated with an increase of lysin for goat cor- 

 puscles. The course of antigen in the blood appears to be the same in ben- 

 zenized as in nonbenzenized rabbits. 



The injection of benzene at the height of antibody production appears to have 

 but little effect on the leucocytes of the blood, and its antibody content, the 

 precipitin especially persisting longer and with more fluctuation than other- 

 wise. 



"Benzene may lower the resistance, to infection by reduction (1) of antibody 

 production, (2) of the number of leucocytes, and (3) of leucocytic activity. 

 That benzene acts on elements that elaborate antibodies, and that the leucocy- 

 togenic centers are concerned in this elaboration, is indicated (1) in the rabbit, 

 by the reduction of antibodies and of leucocytes and by the resistance to these 

 effects when antibody production is at or near its highest activity as measured 

 by the concentration of antibodies in the blood, and (2) in the dog, when suit- 

 able doses are given, by leucocytosis and increased formation of lysin." 



The coexistence of antibody and antigen in the body, B. S. Denzeb (Jour. 

 Infect. Diseases, 18 (1916), No. 6, pp. 6S1-645, pis. 2, fig. 1). — From the work 

 reported it is concluded that antigen and antibody both in the cells and in the 

 blood may be demonsti-ated during a period of three weeks succeeding the injec- 



