LOCO WEED. 



By L. E. Sayee, University of Kansas, Lawrence. 

 Read before the Academy, at Topeka, January I, 1903. 



'T^HE subject of loco is a good deal like a tradition — it grows in. the 

 -*- memory and in the imagination. There are plenty of facts to 

 encourage, and, on the other hand, there are plenty of facts from 

 equally good and authentic sources to discourage, the faith that we 

 have placed in Astragalus rnollissimus as a poisonous plant. This 

 plant, it is well known, is said to cause dementia, some believing that 

 the secret lurking power of this innocent wild pea extends beyond 

 the lower animal, even to the human family. Applying the theory 

 of ^'similia," we have found those who claim that in some remote 

 future time we may find in this plant a valuable remedy for the cure 

 of insanity. Members of the Academy may remember some reports 

 made a few years ago in which a chemical analysis of the weed was 

 given. Concentrated preparations of the plant, representing the alka- 

 loid, were made and administered both to the lower animals and to 

 one memher of the human family. All live to offer themselves for 

 further investigation ; they neither affirm nor approve the statement 

 that loco is the "crazy weed." 



We would not have any one think for a minute that we discredit 

 the ground for the opinion that, in some mysterious way, certain dis- 

 orders occur among cattle in connection with what is commonly called 

 "loco weed." But the problem is. What is this connection? What 

 relation has Astragalus rnollissimus to the disease of such varied 

 symptoms, sometimes called "locoism"? If we could assume that 

 the loco, like clover and alfalfa — belonging, as it does, to the same 

 family— should have similar properties as a nitrogenous food, then 

 we might find a similarity between it and a distemper or disease not 

 unlike the ordinary class of diseases brought about by a disturbance 

 in the digestive tract, such as may be expected when an animal in a 

 half-starved condition is permitted to overfeed on alfalfa or clover. 

 This condition, if continued, could naturally lead to a disturbance of 

 the nervous system, of which the brain is the center. Take, for ex- 

 ample, a poorly fed horse or cow, such as is characterized by the 

 range-fed cattle in winter. Let either be suddenly supplied with 

 plants from the pea family, rich in legumin, and the natural result 

 would be a disturbance in the digestive tract, which might assume all 



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