June 27, 1902 ] 



SCIENCE. 



1023 



sprouted seeds was found to be fifteen 

 times as great as in sprouted seeds, and in 

 the seedlings of the jequirity bean, Abrus 

 precatorius, it has been definitely shown 

 that most of the toxalbizmin is retained in 

 the cotyledons. In growing colchicum the 

 percentage of alkaloid is high in the grow- 

 ing tips and comparatively low in the 

 lower part of the bulb. The first year's 

 crop of leaves of foxglove and of henbane 

 is inferior to that of the second on account 

 of the smaller quantity of active principle. 

 The variation in strength of the powerfully 

 poisonous drug known as strophanthin is 

 so well known to physicians that its med- 

 ical use is being abandoned. Many such 

 instances might be cited, but these show 

 the importance of knowing the entire his- 

 tory of a plant in testing its character as 

 poisonous or non-poisonous. 



There are several molds and smuts which 

 often infest corn and fodder. We know 

 that some of these, when eaten or inhaled, 

 sometimes cause death in a mechanical way 

 by clogging up the system by their growth 

 within the body, but there is much reason 

 to believe that some of them contain poisons 

 which are either consumed with the mold 

 or are generated pari passu with the growth 

 of the mold in the body. Probably some of 

 these compounds like the sulphocyanic acid 

 of Aspe7-gillus niger — a weak poison— are 

 absorbed with difficidty, especially when 

 taken into the stomach, and this may be 

 the reason why the plants are often eaten 

 with comparative impunity. But are 

 there not conditions when a greater quan- 

 tity of toxic substances may be present in 

 them, or may there not be a condition of 

 the system in which the poison is more 

 easily absorbed? The large niunber of 

 cases of stock-poisoning said to have been 

 caused by molds and smuts demand an ex- 

 tended investigation. 



Another problem which is essentially of 

 the same nature is in connection with the 



large polymeric group of saponin-like glu- 

 cosides. These substances are, as a rule, 

 not very poisonous when taken into the 

 stomach, but it is a noticeable fact that few 

 of the many plants which contain them are 

 eaten by animals. Some are, however, 

 eaten both by the lower animals and by 

 man, as is the case with the fruit of the 

 Moreton Bay chestnut or bean tree, Cas- 

 tanosperrmim australe, of Australia. Some 

 persons assert that this fruit is edible, 

 others that it is merely indigestible, while 

 still others are emphatic in regard to their 

 deleterious effect upon man. Nearly all 

 of the saponins are difficult to dialyze, so it 

 is quite probable that when taken into the 

 stomach they are ordinarily excreted before 

 they can accumulate in sufficient quantity 

 in the blood to cause symptoms of poison- 

 ing, but in other cases where poisoning has . 

 resulted it seems probable that some condi- 

 tion of the digestive tract, perhaps ulcera- 

 tion, has facilitated the absorption of the 

 compound into the system, where it at once 

 exerts the same powerful effect that it does 

 when injected hypodermically. 



Some animals are, for various reasons, 

 entirely immune against the effect of cer- 

 tain poisons. This difference in suscepti- 

 bility is, in general, correlated to the men- 

 tal development of the animals compared. 

 The brain and nerve poisons, such as 

 morphine and atropine, are much less 

 poisonous to animals than man. Dogs and 

 horses can, in proportion to their weight, 

 endure ten times as much morphine as 

 man, while doves can stand 500 times 

 and frogs even a thoiisand times as much. 

 In herbivorous animals, especially in those 

 Avhich chew their cud, such as sheep and 

 cattle, the digestive tract is much longer 

 than in the ease of omnivorous or carniv- 

 orous animals, consequently the food re- 

 mains in the body for a much longer period. 

 In ease of herbivorous animals this period 

 is usually several days, while in cai'nivo- 



