LESS IMPORTANT SPECIES. 115 



Very little seems to have been written concerning the action of the 

 plant on the animal organism. Nicolai Kruskal ^ states that the plant 

 contains a poisonous saponinlike substance, but does not state in what 

 part of the plant it is to be found or is most abundant. Britton and 

 Brown in their Flora state that the name "cow herb" was applied to 

 the plant in allusion to its value for forage. Cornevin,^ a French 

 authority on poisonous plants, does not include the cow cockle in his 

 treatise, but states that animals refuse to touch Saponarla officinalis^ 

 a very closely related species. Mr. Lamme says that when fed with 

 screenings chickens reject the cockle. Miss Maj^nard corroborates 

 this statement, and says that hogs and sheep will eat the screenings, 

 but that horses reject the cockle. 



No cases of stock poisoning were reported, but, as the seeds are 

 sometimes rejected as food, it was concluded that there must be a 

 reason for it. It was thought also that, since the seed has been but 

 recently offered to animals in large quantit}'^, the toxic effects, as in 

 many cases of corn cockle poisoning, might have been mainly of a 

 chronic order and on this account easilj^ overlooked. An investigation 

 was therefore started and 119^ grams of the finel}" ground seed was 

 mixed with an equal weight of distilled water, heated for two hours 

 at a temperature (60° C.) somewhat less than commonly used for 

 scalding, allowed to stand at the ordinary room temperature overnight, 

 and then filtered under pressure through a strong linen bag. The 

 filtrate was a thick, milky, and very frothy fluid, which rapidly dark- 

 ened on exposure. It, as well as the residue, had a sharp pungent 

 and repulsive odor and taste. On dilution with water it frothed a 

 great deal even in ver}^ dilute solutions, thus exhibiting one of the 

 most characteristic tests of the sapotoxin-like compounds. The froth- 

 ing was, indeed, so marked that it was at first impossible in water 

 solution to measure off an}' given amount, but after long standing the 

 bubbles disappeared, leaving a clear solution. Onh' 31 grams of the 

 fluid extract was obtained (on June 5) from the 119^ grams of seed. 

 This quantit}^ is not, of course, the full proportion of extract from 

 the entire quantit}^ of seed, but is equivalent to that from about 31 

 grams, the remainder being kept in solution in the water mingled with 

 the finel}" ground seeds. After the filtrate was secured the residue 

 was dried and then put to soak with 50 per cent alcohol. 



Experiment 1. — On June 6, 7 grams of the water extract, represent- 

 ing approximatelj^ 7 grams of seed, was fed at 12.17 p. m. to a white 

 rabbit weighing about 3 pounds. At 2.20 the pulse was normal, but 

 the respiration was slow and shallow. The rabbit was lying prostrate 

 on the ground with the head stretched out so that the throat also was 



^ Ueber einige Saponinsubstanzen, Arbeiten des Pharmakol. Inst., Dorpat, vol. 6, 

 p. 7. 1891. 

 " Ij^s Plantes Veneneuses, p. 262. 1893. 



