Nov. IS, 191S Gossypol, the Toxic Substance in Cottonseed Meal 275 



December 16, p. m. — ^Ate 0.2 gm. of gossypol. 

 December 17, a. m. — Ate green feed well. 

 December 17, p. m. — Ate 0.17 gm. of gossypol. 

 December 18, a. m. — Ate green feed well. 

 December 18, p. m. — Refused to eat the "doped" food. 



December 19, a. m. — Slightly sick; eats green feed moderately. ^ 



December 19, p. m. — Refused to eat com meal and molasses, but ate green feed. 

 Amount eaten, 0.67 gm. ; final weight, 2,140 gm.; loss, 200 gm. 

 December 20 to December 31. — Ate green and com meal and molasses; regained 

 normal healtli. 



Rabbit 951, weight 1,800 gm., which had previously stood two long 

 feeding periods on ether-extracted cottonseed kernels, was fed crystal- 

 line gossypol "acetate." It ate 0.6 gm. in the first four days and then be- 

 came sick, refusing all feed. On the tenth day it weighed 1,605 gm- 

 From then till the twenty-eighth day, on which it died, it ate 0.32 gm. 

 Weight about 1,170 gm. 



Post-mortem observations: Teaspoonful excess in abdomen. Moderate injection 

 of serous membranes. Some hemorrhagic areas in stomach. Mesenteric blood vessels 

 more or less injected. Small thrombus in heart. 



Rabbit 965A ate the same preparation of gossypol mixed with corn 

 meal and molasses. It ate, by weeks, 0.64, 0.08, 0.5, 0.37, 0.07, 0.80, 

 0.31, and o gm.; total, 2.53 gm. This was a large healthy rabbit at the 

 beginning. The post-mortem examination showed a slight excess of 

 fluid in the abdominal cavity and serous membranes highly congested. 



A new lot of rabbits was secured from a supply house in Washington, 

 D. C. These rabbits were not as healthy and resistant as could be de- 

 sired, some evidently having been used before in experimental work. 



Rabbits 974, 976, 977, and 972 were given the same gossypol feed. 

 Rabbit 974 ate 0.33 gm. of gossypol with corn meal and molasses. The 

 next day it had a very bad diarrhea, which continued all day. It ate no 

 green feed and only a Uttle gossypol feed for the next four days, after 

 which gossypol was withdrawn from the feed. On the nineteenth day 

 it had not entirely recovered from the effects of eating 0.47 gm. of gossy- 

 pol during the first five days. Loss in weight during 15 days, 330 gm. 



Rabbit 976 was fed 0.25 gm. of gossypol. It had diarrhea the next 

 day and no appetite. The third day it ate 0.05 gm.; fourth day, 0.09 

 gm.; fifth day, o.oi gm.; and afterwards refused the gossypol feed. It 

 lost in weight steadily until death, on the fifteenth day. Gossypol eaten, 

 0.40 gm. Loss in weight, 475 gm. 



Rabbit 977 was fed like 976, with approximately the same effect. It 

 died on the thirteenth day. Gossypol eaten, 0.35 gm. Loss in weight, 

 580 gm. 



Rabbit 972 ate 0.55 gm. of gossypol and died in 13 days. 



These last three rabbits were fed on a product which was somewhat 

 darker in color than the gossypol given rabbit 974. The gossypol tends 

 to take on a greenish or brown tinge under some conditions of prepara- 



