i8o Journal of Agricultural Research voi. x, N0.4 



shoulder, or when moved, wabbled to the other side, making deflections 

 and contortions not unlike those made by pigeons suffering from poly- 

 neuritis. Fed the mother's milk with the continuance of the same ration 

 this condition usually disappeared after two weeks, and the calf continued 

 to grow normally. On this ration (wheat grain plus corn stover) the 

 mothers appeared perfectly normal, although we have no evidence 

 that they were absolutely so. The depressing factor of the ration 

 (probable toxicity of the wheat grain) w^as having its greatest effect on 

 the offspring and presumably through the placenta. It is an interest- 

 ing fact that this pathological condition could apparently be cured with 

 the milk of the same mother on the same ration. By the use of the 

 milk from the mother the weakness would gradually disappear, and in 

 two to three weeks some calves if bom alive from a cow^ fed a wheat- 

 grain and corn-stover ration would appear normal, while invariably a 

 calf fed a corn-grain and wheat-straw ration could not be saved. We 

 would have to assume as a logical explanation of the revival of the off- 

 spring with the mother's milk that during intrauterine life the placental 

 membrane was traversed by the toxic factor, while the mammary cells 

 were not, or that the milk furnished a more perfect nutritive medium 

 than the blood stream, thereby providing for more effective resistance 

 to the action of the toxic material than a poorer ration could. The 

 latter hypothesis is in our judgment less tenable. 



INFlvUENCE ON MILK vSBCRETlON AND REPRODUCTION OF SALTS ADDED TO 



IMPERFECT RATIONS 



From analytical data we early recognized that a wheat and wheat- 

 straw ration differed materially in its mineral content from a com and 

 corn-stover ration (6, p. 138). The bases of thes^ diets (calcium, mag- 

 nesium, and potassium) were considerably lower in quantity in the 

 wheat ration than in the com ration. In fact, animals on a whpat 

 ration always produced a urine acid to litmus, while on a corn ration 

 the reaction with the same indicator was alkaline. In 191 1 we presented 

 a limited amount of data upon the effect of adding calcium, magnesium, 

 and potassium carbonates to a wheat and wheat-straw ration in such 

 quantities as to make the intake of bases practically identical with their 

 quantity in a com ration. We have again done this with a number of 

 animals, and in addition have supplied the bases as salts of organic 

 acids. It was believed that there might be some additional disturb- 

 ance created by the continued use of alkaline carbonates and their 

 tendency to keep the contents of the first portion of the digestive tract 

 in alkaline condition, which might explain our failure to correct the 

 disastrous results with the wheat and wheat-straw ration. Consequently 

 quantities of bases equivalent to those added as carbonates were added 

 as calcium lactate, magnesium citrate, and potassium citrate. In some 

 rations only a single salt, such as calcium lactate or potassium citrate, 



