THE MILLETS 123 
He fed several horses no other hay than millet for sev- 
eral weeks. Most of the horses showed no evil effect, 
but one in particular exhibited all the symptoms of 
‘‘millet disease.’? Referring to the results of exclu- 
sive millet feeding, he says: ‘‘ It produces an increased 
action of the kidneys, and causes lameness and swelling 
of the joints. It causes an infusion of blood into the 
joints and destroys the texture of the bone, rendering 
it soft and less tenacious, so that the ligaments and 
muscles are easily torn loose.’’ Professor Ladd, of the 
same station, later isolated a glucoside from millet hay 
extract that produced these characteristic symptoms in 
small mammals to which it was given. 
Some horses are evidently more subject to this dis- 
order than others; most of them seem to be exempt. 
But that millet is occasionally the cause of such troubles 
is tolerably certain. Horses seem to be the only farm 
animals that ever suffer from this cause. Cases 
exhibiting the above symptoms were not uncommon 
among farm horses in southwest Missouri some twenty- 
five years ago, and millet was grown there to a con- 
siderable extent at that time. They were not then 
attributed to millet feeding, but it is probable, in the 
light of subsequent investigations, that this was the 
cause. 
In Professor Hinebauch’s experiments the symp- 
toms of disease disappeared when other hay was sub- 
stituted. It is generally believed that millet can be 
fed to horses with perfect safety if fed alternately with 
other hay. In by far the larger number of cases it 
can be fed without other hay and not produce any un- 
favorable effects. For sheep and cattle there seems to 
