POISONOUS PLANTS 269 



cyanogenetic (like Java beans), and, so far as we at present 

 know, no specific poison has ever been isolated therefrom. 



Brewer's Grains and Distiller's Grains, the residues of 

 the mashing in beer and spirit fabrication, are good feeds in 

 themselves, but sometimes held responsible for 'poisoning.' 

 But grains are liable to fermentation, and also to acidity, 

 and consequently ought not to be too freely fed, and ought 

 to be mixed with straw chaff; otherwise, digestive trouble and 

 tympanites may result. The Belgian and French writers, 

 further, describe drunkenness in stock by use of fermenting 

 grains, which is alarming and sometimes dangerous. In 

 the interests of hygiene it may be stated that grains should 

 be free of alcohol, and of no, or very slight, acidity. 



The addition of much common salt in order to preserve 

 such foods as distillery sludge makes them improper, and 

 possibly harmful, foods for pigs. 



On the Continent somewhat similar considerations hold 

 with regard to beet pulp residues from sugar fabrication. 

 As regards the effects of sugary foods — molasses, molasses 

 mixtures, and dry slices in which sugar is contained, some- 

 times to the extent of more than 30 per cent., attention 

 may profitably be directed to their values as foods, regard- 

 ing which reference should be made to the recent observa- 

 tions of Goodwin.* 



The nuts of the Beech, Fagus sylvatica, are not likely to 

 cause trouble in Great Britain. Cornevin states that the 

 leaves are harmless, that the oil and decorticated press 

 residue of the nuts are also harmless, but that cake of 

 undecorticated press residue causes poisoning, recalling 

 that of lolium. The cause is unknown ; it may be due to a 

 toxic principle like that of lolium, but the question is at 

 present unsettled. 



Acorn Disease. 



The remarkable disorder known as acorn poisoning, 

 or acorn disease, has attracted much attention in Great 

 Britain, and offers some features of interest. It does not 



* Journal of Board of Agricultwre, 1911, p. 97. 



