6o POISONOUS PLANTS 



the round grains of starch of wheat. As the black 

 fragments are removed by fine sifting or bolting, 

 the flour should be carefully examined, before 

 grinding. But it imparts a greyish tint and dis- 

 agreeable odour, even to bread when baked. 

 Again, the fine-grained starch does not so readily 

 give the blue or violet colour with iodine. This 

 test has been used with success, as also to 

 estimate the quantity of the deleterious grain 

 present. There are also several other useful 

 tests. 



No animal will eat the plant, and all mishaps 

 recorded resulted from the seeds in bread as far 

 as man is concerned, for the heat of baking does 

 not destroy the injurious quality. 



Accidents with animals have occurred by feed- 

 ing them with the so-called " thirds " and siftings. 

 No less than forty-five per cent, of the meal of corn- 

 cockle has been found in fraudulent food for cattle 

 oa the Continent. Two and a half per thousand in 

 weight is sufficient to kill a calf and a fowl, but 

 only one per thousand a pig.^ The active principle 

 acts as an irritant, and with local inflammation, 

 giving rise to diarrhoea within, and, if injected 

 hypodermicaJly, serious inflammation. A substance 

 of the same nature as that of the Soapwort and 



^ Cornevin's system is to calculate the number of grammes 

 of the poison, and one thousand (or one kilogram) of the 

 live animal's weight. 



