26 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



The name of the investigator can not now be ascertained. These bees 

 are said to have shown no symptoms, but the hone} 7 they made pro- 

 duced typical symptoms in two persons who ate it. a It has been 

 claimed that the flesh of birds after eating laurel is poisonous to 

 man, 6 but Wilson, Audubon,* and Aaron e state that they have fre- 

 quently eaten without- injury partridges whose craws were filled with 

 laurel leaves and buds. It is probable that many of these cases of 

 poisoning were really due to ptomaines, as they usually occurred 

 from undrawn animals. 



There are few cases in man of poisoning with laurel. Children are 

 said to have been poisoned by eating the plant in mistake for Gaul- 

 theria procumhens/ although there are no published cases to that 

 effect. Laurel is claimed to be used in certain liquors to render them 

 more intoxicating.^ Barton h noted that the flowers of Kalmia lati- 

 folia would produce a vesicular eruption in certain persons. 



EFFECT OF MOUNTAIN LAUREL ON SHEEP. 



Stable- fed sheep and lambs were turned into an inclosed area in 

 which the mountain laurel was the only green plant. These sheep, 

 which were kept under observation for several hours, refused to do 

 more than merely nibble at the leaves, and when placed in grassy areas 

 where this plant was growing they positively refused to touch it. 

 These observations agree with those of Wood < on Kalmia angusti- 

 folia. Other animals besides sheep seem disinclined to eat it. Kalm 

 reported in 1754 that the leaves of the trees in Pennsylvania were de- 

 voured by a worm, but that the mountain laurel leaves were un- 

 touched.^' 



Sheep weighing about 50 pounds (25 kilos) were fed with doses 

 of 5, 10, 15, 25, and 35 grams of the dried ground-up leaves in- 

 closed in gelatine capsules without producing poisonous symptoms. 

 Fifty grams, when given to a sheep weighing 33.5 kilos, induced a 

 staggering gait and slight salivation, but doses of 85 grams would 

 cause death in a very few hours unless diarrhea set in. Under these 



a Unpublished answer to inquiry. See note on page 35. 



6 Barton, B. S., 1. c, p. 60.— Elliot, D. G. " Game Birds " of the United States. 

 Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1S64, pp. 363, 364, 1865. 



c Wilson, A., and Bonaparte, C. L. Amer. Ornithology, vol. 2, p. 319, Edin- 

 burgh, 1831. 



d Audubon, J. J. Birds of America, vol. 5, p. 79, 1871. 



c Aaron, C. E. Cram's Magazine, vol. 2, p. 502, 1900. 



f Unpublished correspondence. ( G. Watkins, 1896. ) 



9 Chesnut, V. K. Principal Poisonous Plants of United States. U. S. Dept. 

 Agr., Div. Bot. Bui. 20, p. 45. 



h Barton, B. S. Collections for an Essay Towards a Materia Medica of the 

 United States, p. 35, 1804. 



i Wood, T. F. Is Sheep Laurel Poisonous to Sheep? American Agricul- 

 turist, vol. 42, p. 66, 1883. 



J Kalm, P., 1. c, vol. 1, p. 266. 

 121— ji 



