jtiiy23. I9I7 Effect on Growth and Reproduction of Rations 193 



The possibility of destrojdng the toxicity by heat was also investigated, 

 and baked wheat was fed with com stover. This had no effect whatever 

 in improving the wheat kernel. 



In other cases the wheat-grain and corn-stover ration had butter fat 

 added to it for the purpose of supplying plentifully the growth-promoting 

 factor, fat-soluble A, now known to be necessary for growth and supplied 

 abundantly in butter fat. It was thought possible that the wheat-grain 

 and wheat-straw ration was somewhat deficient in this material. Addi- 

 tions of butter fat, however, did not uniformly improve the ration. 

 We had a number of failures in reproduction, and also a number of 

 successes with its use. This would again emphasize the probability of 

 the presence of a toxic substance in the wheat grain. 



When, however, the wheat grain was mixed with a legume hay, such 

 as alfalfa, so that the latter formed but 20 per cent of the ration, we have 

 had perfect success in all cases in the production of normal offspring, 

 at least for the first gestation. The improvement resulting from the use 

 of the alfalfa must lie in introducing in the ration a better salt mixture, 

 perhaps a better protein mixture, and an abundance of growth-promoting 

 substances, all of which may contribute toward making it possible for 

 the cell to destroy or resist the action of the toxic substance introduced. 

 However, in the second-gestation period on the same ration (wheat 

 grain plus wheat straw plus alfalfa hay) the calves were weak, and in 

 one case blind, but it Hved. This is extremely interesting as illustrating 

 the cumulative effect of this toxicity. 



Where com stover was wholly substituted for the wheat straw, we had 

 a number of successes and also a number of failures in the first gestation 

 period. Apparently as an "antidote" to the toxicity this roughage was 

 not as effective as the legume hay. 



We had thought it possible in our earlier work that the acidity of the 

 wheat ration was an important factor in the results recorded. It was tme 

 that the urine of the all-wheat-plant-fed animals showed a slight acidity 

 to litmus, owing to a low intake of bases in the ration. If this were an 

 important factor in our results, then the successful com ration might be 

 disturbed with adds and give us results similar to the wheat ration. 

 This, however, we found not to be the case, for when to an all-corn ration 

 there were added mineral adds such as sulphuric and phosphoric adds 

 in such proportions as to make the acidity of the urine of a degree similar 

 to that of a wheat and wheat-straw-fed animal, the offspring were strong 

 and normal in every respect. Even the addition of a high proportion of 

 magnesium salts to a com ration did not disturb in any way its power of 

 produdng normal offspring. 



The results detailed above indicate clearly that wheat grain contains a 

 toxic material, and later work has shown that this is very prominent in 

 the embryo of the seed. When wheat embryo is imposed on com stover 

 so as to bring into the ration seven to eight times the amount of em- 



