Feb. i8. 1918 Efficacy of Some Anthelmintics 429 



Both the stems and water are mixed with half the usual ration of ground 

 feed and given to the fowls. Two hours later one-fourth the usual ration 

 is given mixed with Epsom salt at the rate of 312 gm. for each 100 fowls. 

 The treatment is to be repeated one week later. The cost is said to be 

 only 10 cents for 100 fowls. 



In the present experiment six chickens were deprived of food for 24 

 hours and then fed the tobacco mash; two hours later they were fed 

 the Epsom salt mash in the proportions recommended by Herms and 

 Beach. The next day they were given what was left of the tobacco 

 mash, since they had refused to clean it up the first time. A mixture of 

 bran and tobacco was used, and the birds were not very eager for it, 

 even after the preliminary fasting. 



The remedy removed 30 out of 162 Heterakis papulosa, 3 out of 39 

 tapeworms, and had no effect on Tetrameres sp., a parasite which, from 

 its location in the mucous glands of the proventriculus, would not be 

 likely to be affected. This treatment is apparently intended especially 

 for Ascaridia perspicillwm, since the "roundworm" figured in the paper 

 by Herms and Beach {1916) is evidently of this species. Unfortu- 

 nately the efficacy of the treatment for this parasite could not be deter- 

 mined, since no species of Ascaridia were present in the birds used in 

 the experiment. 



While the tobacco treatment failed to free any bird from all of the 

 worms of any given species that might be present, nevertheless the 

 treatment seems to have been more successful against Heterakis papulosa 

 or against tapeworms than the other treatments tried. 



In view of the difficulty of removing H. papulosa from the ceca, it 

 may be assumed on the showing here that this treatment would be 

 effective in removing Ascaridia perspicUhim from the small intestine, 

 especially if the dose is repeated, as recommended by Herms and Beach. 



OIL OF CHENOPODIUM 



Oil of chenopodium is derived from the distillation of the seeds or of the 

 entire leafy part of Chenopodium anthelminticiim L-., sometimes referred 

 to under the synonym " CJienopodium a^nbrosioides anihelminticum 

 A. Gray," and commonly called "chenopodium," "American wonn- 

 seed," or "Jerusalem oak." According to Henkel (1913) — 



Wormseed has been naturalized in this coiintry from tropical America and occurs 

 in waste places from New England to Florida and westward to California. 



Infusions made from chenopodium were used in the United States 

 by the early settlers as a treatment for infestation with ascarids in man, 

 and its anthelmintic properties are said to have been known by the 

 Indians. Oil of chenopodium has only recently come into prominence 

 as a result of the shortage of thymol and santonin, for which it has 

 proved an effective substitute. 

 27810°— 18 3 



