Lupinosis, Acute Toxeemic Icterus. 477 



tive, castor oil, water. In horse, causes anorexia, anaesthesia, dullness, 

 stupor, colic, constipation, urinary irritation, fever, slight jaundice, vertigo, 

 orange nasal discharge, sores on tongue and face, and lower part of limbs. 

 Diagnosis. Prognosis hopeful. Treatment as in sheep. Icterus from other 

 fodders. 



This afEection has been noticed especially in sheep, but also in 

 the goat, horse, ox and stag as the result of eating lupins. The 

 dog has contracted the disease under experiment. It has been 

 .studied especially in Northern Germany, where the lupin is largely 

 cultivated as a fodder crop. The yellow, lupin (Lupinus Luteus) 

 is mainly to blame for the disease, but the lyupinus Albus and 

 Augustifolius are also spoken of as factors. 



The disease caused by altered seeds and straw of the lupin is 

 mainly characterized by jaundice, fatty degeneration of the 

 hepatic cells and hypertrophy of the connective tissue of the 

 liver causing acute atrophy of the organ. 



Causes. The essential cause of the disease appears to be the 

 consumption of lupins. But all lupins are not equally poisonous. 

 Those taken from one portion of a field are harmless, while those 

 from another are toxic. In stacks built in the field and weathered 

 the upper and outer portions are often harmless while the interior 

 remains poisonous. It would seem as if the poison were washed 

 off by the rain, or deprived of its potency by the action of the 

 air. It successfully resists dry heat, for three hours at boiling 

 temperature, but is rendered harmless by steam acting under the 

 pressure of two atmospheres for the same length of time. A 

 poisonous principle (lupino-toxine) has been obtained from the 

 toxic lupins but it is not quite certain that this is the sole toxic in- 

 gredient. This agent is extracted from the powdered seeds by 

 macerating them for two hours in a soda solution (in which it is very 

 soluble) at 102° F. , and purified by treating the solution success- 

 ively with acetic acid, lead acetate,. hyposulphuric acid and alcohol. 

 This agent produces the symptoms of lupinosis in the acute or 

 chronic form according to the doses of the agent administered. 

 Eichhorn and Baumstarch have isolated from lupins an alkaloid an- 

 alogous to conicine : Stener found an alkaloid which he believed to be 

 methylconicine : Baumert attril^uted the activity to another alkaloid 

 lupinine. It is not definitely known whether the poisoning is 

 usually effected by a simple poison or by a combination of several. 



