June 27, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



1021 



pure salt when fed regularly even in nor- 

 mal quantities would imdoubtedly prove 

 fatal if all other salts were withheld from 

 the food for a considerable time; half tea- 

 cupful doses of the saturated solution are 

 said to be sometimes taken by the Chinese 

 to commit suicide. This elimination of the 

 time and dose elements makes it very diffi- 

 cult, sometimes, to distinguish poisonous 

 substances from foods, but it is eminently 

 satisfactory because it calls for subsequent 

 explanation showing in what way and to 

 what extent a substance is toxic. It calls 

 more forcibly to mind, also, the danger in 

 the continued use of drugs and of such 

 narcotics as tobacco and hasheesh, and also 

 to the flagrant and outrageous use of anti- 

 septics in such foods as milk and bread 

 which are consumed daily, sometimes in 

 large quantities. "Who can say how much 

 material damage is done to the progress 

 of civilization by this criminal practice? 

 Until proven to the contrary, it ought to be 

 taken for granted that any substance which 

 has antiseptic or germicidal value is also 

 capable of exerting these properties in a 

 deleterious way in the human body, es- 

 pecially when the substance is ingested fre- 

 quently for a long period of time. The 

 Spanish people are said to be a race of 

 dyspeptics because of their inordinate use 

 of condiments ; let us pray that the Ameri- 

 can people will never become degenerate 

 on account of the use of the antiseptically 

 preserved food which is too often sold in 

 our markets. 



There are 16,673 leaf-bearing plants in- 

 cluded in Heller's 'Catalogue of North 

 American Plants,' and of these there are 

 nearly 500 which, in one way or another, 

 have been accused of being poisonous. 

 This does not, of course, mean that any one 

 part or all of each of these plants would be 

 fatal if eaten by man or by any one kind of 

 an animal, but simply this, that some part 

 or parts of each, at some period of the 



plant's growth, contain an active principle 

 which is capable of causing death or some 

 serious derangement of function in one or 

 more forms of animal life when adminis- 

 tered in a certain way, not necessarily by 

 way of the mouth. Snake venom is none 

 the less poisonous because it can be swal- 

 lowed with impunity in considerably more 

 than what would be a fatal dose if injected 

 into the skin in the natural way through 

 the serpent's fangs; neither is the death 

 cup, Amanita phalloides, to be considered 

 non-poisonous because it has been eaten 

 after the poison was extracted by chemical 

 methods. Other plants may be eaten with 

 other things which will either enhance 

 their poisonous effect, as in the case of 

 amygdalin when an amygdalin-splitting 

 ferment is also consumed, or counteract it, 

 as might be the case when other medicinal 

 plants are eaten ; others again may be con- 

 sidered non-poisonous because the active 

 constituent may be removed or destroyed 

 from the plant by boiling or by drying; 

 and finally others may be declared innocent 

 because the poison is not present in the 

 part consumed, or is present only at cer- 

 tain brief stages of growth; the amount 

 present might also have been increased or 

 diminished according to the conditions of 

 growth or cultivation of the plant, as is 

 most commonly the case in those which are 

 cultivated for their medical value. 



"We cannot take time to even mention 

 all of the unsolved problems which have 

 arisen in connection with all of these sus- 

 pected plants, but there are several inter- 

 esting questions in connection with the 

 variable amount of poison present in a 

 plant, its variable location in the plant, and 

 especially the variable effect upon animals, 

 that should receive special attention. 



Pew poisonous plants are of sufficient 

 commercial importance to have been inves- 

 tigated chemically with anything like the 

 detail necessary in order for one to draw 



