igo6.] Poisoning of Cattle by "Java" Beans. 745 



particular it was indicated that changed climatic or cultural 

 conditions in any locality in which the cultivated forms of the 

 bean are produced, might lead in some cases to the production 

 of poisonous forms, and that, further, there was some difficulty 

 in distinguishing by mere inspection between the poisonous 

 wild beans, and the coloured forms produced by more or less 

 careful cultivation, and that . consequently if a large trade in 

 these beans were developed, as seemed probable, there would 

 always be risk of confusion between the poisonous and non- 

 poisonous forms. 



" It appears that this latter difficulty has already arisen, both 

 in this country and in Holland. Quite recently the Imperial 

 Institute has received from three different firms of importers in 

 this country, samples of beans of PJiaseoliLs lunatus said to be 

 imported from Java. These beans had seed coats exhibiting 

 the dark purple, or buff colours with purple spots, which seem 

 to characterise the poisonous variety of the beans of Phaseolus 

 lunatus. The samples were examined in the Scientific and 

 Technical Department of the Imperial Institute, and found to 

 yield quantities of prussic acid varying from 0*03 to 0'i6 per 

 cent. These quantities of acid are about the same as those 

 furnished by the wild Mauritius beans derived from Phaseolus 

 lunaius previously examined at the Imperial Institute which are 

 well known to be poisonous. These results were communicated 

 to the firms importing these beans from Java, and fortunately 

 it was possible in a number of cases to prevent the sale of 

 further consignments in this country. The beans seem to have 

 been imported, however, in comparatively large quantities, and 

 through a number of different firms, and it has consequently 

 been impossible for all the importers to be warned, with the result 

 that a number of poisoning cases among cattle have occurred. 



" The same trouble seems to have arisen in Holland. The 

 Imperial Institute has been informed by the Director of the 

 Kolonial Museum at Haarlem that several cases of poisoning 

 both among cattle and human beings have been traced to the 

 consumption of these beans. 



" A distinction must be drawn between these highly toxic 

 beans as produced in Java and Mauritius by Phaseolus lunatus 

 when growing wild or in a state of partial cultivation, and those 



