THE Java BEAN. 147 
beans altogether. In Mauritius, where this question is well 
understood, though they do grow the wild and half-wild kinds as 
a green crop to increase the nitrogenous contents of the soil, which 
duty is performed by the Bacteriz, they simply plough it in and 
do not allow their cattle to touch it. They well know its dangerous 
character. The disappearance of the poison under cultivation is 
explained by Mr Dunstan, director of the Imperial Institute, as 
probably due to the stimulated nutrition due to an improved 
environment. The glucoside alluded to is probably used up in 
making starches or proteids, or, it may be, is never formed at all. 
As regards the practical side of the question, the use of the wild 
bean seems to me foolhardy in the extreme. With the knowledge 
which we now possess of it, there is absolutely no excuse and no 
extenuating circumstance to anybody who would now employ it. 
Experience seems to show that the white varieties are harmless. 
A difference of opinion is possible with regard to the half-wild 
Burmah or Rangoon beans. I wrote to the Imperial Institute on 
this matter, and got their reply :— 
“ Dear Sir,—I am directed by Professor Dunstan to acknow- 
ledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd February, referring to 
Burmah beans, and asking (1) whether beans represented by the 
sample recently sent here by you would be safe to use as 
a feeding-stuff, and (2) whether there is any simple means by 
which the dangerous properties of such beans or meal of doubtful 
origin can be removed. 
“Tn reply I am instructed to say that it is impossible to give 
definite answers to either of these questions. 
“A large number of samples of Burmah beans has_ been 
analysed by the Imperial Institute during the last few years, and 
the amounts of prussic acid obtained from various samples have 
ranged from 0.003 to 0.018 per cent. Whilst the minimum 
quantity here mentioned would probably be harmless, 
it is possible that the maximum quantity would be 
dangerous, but nothing definite can be said on_ the 
subject, because no data derived from actual feeding trials are 
available. It is only possible, therefore, to repeat the advice 
already given in the articles in the Bulletin of the Imperial Insti- 
tute, to which you have been referred, that it would be safer to 
avoid the use of the coloured Burmah beans as a feeding stuff 
altogether. An article dealing principally with the so-called 
