478 Veterinary Medicine. 



Nor is it certain whether the toxic matter is a normal product of 

 lupins o^rown on particular soils and under given conditions and 

 harvested at a particular stage of growth, or if it is the product of 

 a crj'ptogamic or bacterial growth. Some leguminous seeds are 

 poisonous at a given stage of ripening but there is as 3'et no proof 

 of lupinosis being confined to any particular stage The common 

 moulds often grow on lupins without rendering them poisonous, 

 but it does not follow that some less familiar cryptogam is equally 

 harmless tuider all circumstances. The soda extract of the 

 poisonous lupins was deadly though it contained no cryptogams, 

 but it is not shown that it was free from soluble chemical products 

 (toxins) of the cryptogams. The same remark applies with 

 equal force to the bacteria which have been invoked as the cause 

 of the poisons. Though not themselves present in a given deadly 

 extract of the lupins this does not exclude from such extract the 

 toxic products of bacterial growth. It is claimed that Arnold has 

 produced lupinosis with lupins that had been first robbed of their 

 alkaloids. But the absence of alkaloids does not prove the ab- 

 .sence of nonbasic (neutral) poisons, of vegetable, cryptogamic or 

 bacterial origin. 



That certain lupins contain a deadly poison is certified, but the 

 precise source of the poison remains to be demonstrated. 



In estimating causes we must take into account the lessened 

 power of resistance of animals lacking in constitutional strength 

 and vigor. Thus sheep suffer far more severely than horses, 

 oxen, or even goats. Ewes and lambs perish in greater numbers 

 than rams, hoggets and wethers. 



Symptoms in Sheep. In the acute form the disease appears 

 suddenly, as manifested by anorexia, hyperthermia, rapid and 

 oppressed breathing, accelerated pulse, stupor, vertigo, and not 

 unfrequently swellings of lips, ears or face. Inappetence may be 

 first manifested by the rejection of poisonous lupins, while sound 

 ones and especially other food are still eaten, but soon all are re- 

 fused alike. Temperature, which may reach 104° to 106° F. on 

 the next day after feeding on the poison, may rise and fall day 

 by day, and finally fall materially as a herald of death. Respiration 

 rises to roo per minute and becomes labored or panting, with, in 

 some cases, a bloody froth in the no.strils. The pulse rising to 

 130 and ujnvards keeps pace with the hyperthermia and general 



