SENECIO JACOBAEA & CALLIMORPHA JACOB AEA POOLE. 285 



Africa, Senecio Burchelli appeared to produce similar effects. 

 Last year another species, Senecio latifolius, in South Africa 

 appeared to have poisonous properties according to the kind 

 of soil in which it grew. Dr. Pethick's experiments 

 appeared to prove that the disease is not contagious, and is 

 due to the ingestion of the Ragwort with hay eaten. 



Professor Arthur R. Cushney of the Pharmacological 

 Laboratory, University College, London, England, lately 

 experimented with the Senecio alkaloids and makes the 

 following statements in two papers published in 1911. 



1. "On the Action of Senecio Alkaloids and the causation 

 of Hepatic Cirrhosis in Cattle (Preliminary Note)" Read 

 15 June, Proceedings Royal Society B. Vol. 84; and 



2. "On the Action of Senecio Alkaloids and the causation 

 of the Hepatic Cirrhosis of Cattle (Pictou, Molteno, or 

 Winton Disease), published 10 June, in the Jour, of 

 Pharmacology and experimental Thearapeutics, Vol. II, 

 No. 6. July, 1911. 



(1). "The various species of Senecio in this country are 

 generally regarded as harmless, the chief of them being the 

 common ragwort and the common groundsel. In Nova Scotia, 

 New Zealand, and South Africa they have, however, been 

 associated with hepatic cirrhosis in cattle, which is known as 

 respectively Pictou, Winton, and Molteno disease in these 

 countries. The species which induces this condition in Canada 

 and New Zealand is apparently identical botanically with the 

 common ragwort of this country, Senecio Jacobea, while in 

 South Africa the Molteno disease is associated with the 

 Senecio Burchellii and the Senecio latifolius. The symptoms 

 of the disease are practically identical in these locations." 



(2). "With regard to the chemistry of the Senecio genus, 

 Grandval and Sejour found two alkaloids in the common 

 groundsel which they term senecionine and senecine, and 

 Watt found two others in the Senecio latifolius of Cape Colony, 



