[VoL. 3 
298 ANNALS OF THE Missourt BOTANICAL GARDEN 
the spores but also the mycelium contained substances of 
intensive poison. Sturli (710) extracted a toxin from cultures 
of Penicillium glaucum, which was neither a phenol, an acid, . 
or an alkaloid. 
Blakeslee and Gartner (713) found that the ‘‘presssaft’’ 
from the aérial filaments of Rhizopus nigricans caused almost 
instant death when injected intravenously into rabbits. 
Several other species of Mucorineae were tested but with neg- 
ative results. A solution containing the water-soluble sub- 
stance extracted from .045 grams of the dry fungus, when 
injected intravenously, is sufficient to kill a 1.35-kilogram 
rabbit in less than two minutes. The poison from Rhizopus 
appears to be 5.5 times that of the tubercle bacillus, 15 
times that obtained from edestin, and 45 times that of 
penicillie acid. Rhizopus nigricans is widely distributed, and 
is almost certain to appear as a spontaneous infection on 
bread and similar substrata rich in carbohydrates when- 
ever the proper temperature and moisture requirements are 
observed. Blakeslee and Gartner point the possible relation of 
this fungus to diseases of unknown origin, such as pellagra, 
horse disease, and the cornstalk disease of the Middle West, all 
of which have been attributed to infected food. 
Mohler (714), in a review of the investigations on cere- 
brospinal meningitis (forage-poisoning), emphasized the 
widely aecepted theory that this disease may be due 
to fungi on the feed. While most investigators have 
obtained negative results, Mays reported that a colt fed ex- 
perimentally upon some of the mouldy corn which was held 
responsible for the serious outbreak in Kansas in 1890, 
developed the disease on the twenty-sixth day. Again, the 
Kansas outbreak in 1906 was said by Haslam to have been 
caused by the consumption of immature ears of corn in- 
fected by moulds, although the exact mould was not de- 
termined. By feeding horses upon this corn, typical fatal 
cases of staggers were produced in four out of seven cases. 
This theory that toxic fungi cause forage-poisoning is not 
antagonistic to the facts in many of the more carefully ob- 
served outbreaks. The great variation in fungous growth 
