68 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



lost 5060 eagles up to January 1, 1920. (W. T. Hornaday, Natural 

 History, Vol. XX, No. 2, pp. n7-120), for which she paid $2530.00 

 in bounties. I dare say that more than 1200 eagles were killed 

 during the last calendar year. Bounties, however, are not collected 

 on all of the eagles that are killed, for most a!l the sea-faring 

 folk seem to take keen delight in shooting the birds from boats 

 and usually leave the dead or wounded where they fall. The cor- 

 respondent, above mentioned, wrote that he killed 182 eagles in 

 1919 and 327 in 1921 for the bounty, fifty cents each. He is con- 

 vinced that he is really doing humanity a favor by killing as many 

 eagles as possible. I believe, however, that the sum total of the 

 annual damage done to Alaskans and to their interests by eagles 

 would not cover the annual total of bounties collected for killing 

 these birds. 



Furthermore, since I found eagles common only along the 

 coasts I can see no reason for placing a bounty on them throughout 

 the entire territory. Granting that damage by eagles is actually as 

 great as isolated observers have noted and as general as the bounty 

 law would suggest, it occures to me that a strip of country 50 

 miles wide along the coasts would be sufficient territory in which 

 to apply a bounty law. 



XXIX. THE POISONOUS SUBSTANCE IN COTTONSEED 

 Paul Menaul 



From the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Stillwater. 

 There have been various suggestions as to the cause of poisoning 

 and death from the feeding of cotton seed meal. It has been vari- 

 ously ascribed to the lint, the oil, the high protein content, to a 

 toxic protein or toxic alkaloid, to cholin and betain, to resin presen; 

 in the meal, to decomposition products, and to a salt of pyro- 

 phosphoric acid. In 1915 Rammel & Veeder of the U. S. Bmeau 

 of Animal Husbandry suggested that poisioning by cotton seed is 

 similar to beri-beri, and is caused by deficient diets. Richard.soii 

 and Green of the University of Texas, concluded that cottonseed 

 caused injury by being deficient in mineral salts and vitamine.=. 



The Occurence and Properties of Gossypol 



if a cross section of a cottonseed kernel is examined uith a 

 lens, m^any small yellowish brown spots may be seen ; these arc se- 

 cretion cavities filled with a compound called gossypol, first isolated 

 in 1899, from by products in the manufacture of cottonseed od. 

 Gossypol is a yellow colored substance having the chemical proper- 

 ties of phenol (carbolic acid) and of tannic acid. It is insoluable m 

 water but soluablc in alkalies, the solution at first being vellow. ihcn 



