8 BULLETIN 125, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Chesnut (1902, p. 321) says that the symptoms in poisoned 

 Indians are "burning and smarting in the mouth and esophagus, 

 dumbness, nausea, profuse vomiting, foaming at the mouth, dizzi- 

 ness, and mania." 



Mitchell and Smith (1911) experimented with the extract on guinea 

 pigs, both by subcutaneous injection and by feeding per os, and found 

 salivation, vomiting, excitement, paralysis (first of the hind legs), 

 rapid respiration becoming slow and labored, heightened reflexes, 

 spasms, heartbeat slowed, and death, under fatal dosage, in 20 to 30 

 minutes. When injected into dogs under anaesthesia, the general 

 effect was to reduce the rate of heartbeat and respiration and to 

 produce marked intestinal peristalsis. The heart stopped before 

 the cessation of respiration. 



Hunt, Vejux-Tyrode, and Mitchell and Smith experimented on 

 frogs, producing paralysis, which showed itself in an inability to 

 draw up the legs readily after extension. Hunt considers that it 

 produces an effect directly on the muscles as well as on the central 

 nervous system. 



Chesnut and Wilcox (1901) and Hunt (manuscript) experi- 

 mented with rabbits, Hunt stating that the rabbits exhibited saliva- 

 tion, nausea, muscle changes, heightened reflexes, and convulsions. 



Summarizing the published statements in regard to the symptoms 

 of Zygadenus poisoning, it may be said that the most evident symp- 

 toms in the higher animals are salivation, nausea, more or less com- 

 plete paralysis, reduced rate of heartbeat and respiration, and con- 

 vulsions. The results on frogs are not so marked, as would be ex- 

 pected from the less complicated nervous system, and the principal 

 thing noticed apparently is paralysis. 



GENERAL STATEMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 



Experimental work upon Zygadenus has been carried on for five 

 seasons, in 1909 and 1910 at Mount Carbon, Colo., and in 1912, 1913, 

 and 1914 at Grey cliff, Mont. Table I gives a summary of these ex- 

 periments. In 1909 six head of cattle were fed experimentally on 

 Zygadenus coloradensis (Table I, section A). In 1910 a steer and 

 four sheep were fed (Table I, sections B and E). In 1912 there were 

 18 cases of experimental feeding of Zygadenus venenosus to sheep 

 (Table I, section F). In 1913 Zygadenus venenosus from the neigh- 

 borhood of the station was fed to 61 sheep. In this section of the 

 table are also given the results of one experiment in feeding Zyga- 

 denus venenosus from the Stanislaus National Forest, Cal., to a sheep. 

 In 1913 Zygadenus elegans, collected near Red Lodge, Mont., was 

 fed to 6 sheep (Table I, section H). In 1914 there were 110 cases 

 of feeding of Zygadenus venenosus to sheep (Table I, section I) and 

 five experiments of feeding to sheep Zygadenus elegans from the 



