1024 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 391. 



rous animals it is about twenty-four hours 

 only. In the former case, therefore, the 

 poison would have much more time to be- 

 come absorbed into the blood than in the 

 latter. This, according to Frohner, prob- 

 ably explains why it is that the metallic 

 poisons are much more fatal to herbivorous 

 than to carnivorous animals. 



The flesh of an immune animal to which 

 a large dose of poison has been adminis- 

 tered is apt to be poisonous to other ani- 

 mals that eat it if they themselves are not 

 immune to its effects. For example, it is 

 asserted that advantage is taken of this 

 fact in our (Southern States in feeding 

 strychnine to chickens in order to poison 

 the hawks that prey upon them. Cases 

 of human poisoning may inadvertently 

 occur by thus eating the poisonous princi- 

 ples of plants which are present in the 

 honey, the milk or the meat derived from 

 certain plants. 



All grades of merit or flavor are attrib- 

 uted to the honey derived from plants, 

 thus indicating that the chemical constit- 

 uents which give characteristic odors and 

 tastes to flowers are often transferred di- 

 rectly to the honey derived from them. 

 Some of the undesirable constituents of 

 nectar are probably eliminated by the bee 

 in some little-known way, and other por- 

 tions are perhaps selectively retained. 

 Formic acid is a poisonous substance which 

 is found as an apparently essential constit- 

 uent in all honey, but as it is present only 

 to the extent of about three grains per 

 liter it does not produce toxic effects. 

 Gelsemine, the poisonous constituent of the 

 southern jessamine, Gelsemium.' semper- 

 virens, is said to have been found in honey 

 from Branchville, South Carolina, and 

 andromedotoxin has lately been found in 

 honey from Rhododendron ponticum of 

 Europe. The most convincing proof that 

 poisonous honey may be derived from 

 rhododendrons and that its toxicity may 



be due to andromedotoxin has been fur- 

 nished by Plugge and Thresh. The for- 

 mer has obtained the poison from the nec- 

 tar of Rhododendron ponticum; the latter 

 found it in 1887 in a sample of honey from 

 Trebizond. 



Cases of poisoning from milk are more 

 apt to happen nowadays from the use of 

 preservatives and from bacterial toxines 

 rather than from any other causes, but 

 cases arise from milk becoming sour while 

 in metallic containers or from the plants 

 eaten by an animal. The effect of garlic 

 on milk is well known but it is not so well 

 known that cabbage and turnips also give 

 milk a bad taste. Chicory imparts a bitter 

 flavor to milk and Dyer's weed, Genista 

 tinctoria, is said to make the butter and 

 even the cheese made from milk derived 

 from it very unpleasant to the taste. Ro- 

 bert states that children have been killed 

 by the milk of goats that had eaten eol- 

 chicum or the broom plant. In my 'Pre- 

 liminary Catalogue of Plants Poisonous to 

 Stock' mention was made of a severe case 

 of poisoning which was due to drinking 

 milk from a cow that had been feeding on 

 mandrake, and investigations made by Dr. 

 E. V. "Wilcox and myself in Montana show 

 that lambs are frequently killed by sucking 

 milk from their mothers after these had 

 eaten death camas, Zygadenus venenostis. 

 It was a common impression throughout 

 various districts in the South only a few 

 years ago that the disease known as 'milk- 

 sick' was due to milk from cows that had 

 been eating poisonous plants. This prob- 

 lem has never been solved, although the 

 disease is still reported occasionally. 

 Other cases of such poisoning are compara- 

 tively rare, but two have recently been re- 

 ported to the Department of Agriculture, 

 one from Nebraska and another more im- 

 portant one from the Pecos YaUey in New 

 Mexico. The butter and cheese were also 

 suspected in the latter ease. 



