RED-SQUILL POWDER IX RAT CONTROL 



white with green veins, are borne on a tall stem, and the fruit is a 

 3-cellecl capsule, with flat, winged seeds having a thick black shell. 

 The plant, though ornamental, is rarely seen in flower gardens, and 

 attempts to grow it on a commercial scale in this country have 

 proved discouraging. It is reported, however, that squill is being 

 successfully cultivated for the drug trade on a small scale in Italy 

 and that the cultivated variety yields heavily, each plant producing 

 on the average about 15 pounds of bulb after five or six years' 

 growth. 



There are two commercial varieties of squill, which apparently 

 are not distinguishable botanically. White squill is the product 

 official in various 

 pharmacopoeias, and is 

 used in human medi- 

 cine as a heart tonic, 

 emetic, diuretic, and 

 nauseant expectorant. 

 Red squill has all the 

 properties of white 

 squill and in addition 

 contains active toxic 

 constituents, or gluco- 

 sides, that have not 

 been chemically iso- 

 lated and identified. 



Both red and white 

 squill contain needle- 

 like crystals (calcium- 

 oxalate raphides) that, 

 though essentially non- 

 toxic, are irritating to 

 the skin and cause a 

 nettlelike, stinging sen- 

 sation. They also give 

 the squill its acrid, 

 prickly taste, which is 

 objectionable to human 

 beings and to most ani- 

 mals, except rats and 

 house mice. It is prob- 

 ably this objectionable 

 taste that renders squill comparatively harmless, combined with its 

 emetic effect — which causes most animals except rats and mice to 

 vomit bait containing it. 



Red-squill powders vary greatly in toxicity, although those pre- 

 pared under conditions worked out during the course of the investi- 

 gation were found to be fairly uniform in this respect. 

 Toxicity to The average lethal dose of the most toxic powders 

 Rats produced was found to be approximately 1 grain per 4 



one-half-pound of rat; that is, 1 grain of the pow- 

 dered red squill would kill a rat weighing half a pound in less than 

 three days. Powders prepared experimentally under varying con- 



Figure 1. — Red-squill plant 



B 4381 M 



(Urginea maritima) 



