22 TECHNICAL BULLETIN 134, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
The po\vdei*s made by one method were about as toxic as those by 
the other m all but the nearly red group. The whitish-pink bulbs 
gave the most toxic powder and the nearly red ones the least, although 
still satisfactorily potent. As nearly red bulbs comprised almost 
half the shipment, it was not deemed desirable to reject them, even 
though they were less toxic than those of the other groups. To 
facilitate the application of experimental results to commercial 
conditions, all powders thereafter were made from run-of-shipment 
bulbs, without regard to color. Properly selected light-colored 
bulbs, however, might give more toxic powders. 
TOXICITY OF WHITE SQUILL TO RATS 
White squUl is reported to be botanic ally identical with red squill 
and to have essentially the same microscopic appearance, except for 
the lack of pigment cells. The minimum lethal dose of three samples 
of white-squill powder fed to rats could not be determined, but it 
was more than 18,000 milligrams per kilo of body weight. White 
squill is apparently nontoxic to rats. 
TOXICITY OF CALCIUM OXALATE TO RATS 
The presence of calcium oxalate in squill powders has been uni- 
versally recognized. Fliickiger and Hanbury {9, p. 691) report the 
presence of 3.07 per cent of CaC204.3 H2O in a sample of dried white 
squill. A dose of 1,000 milligrams per kilo of body weight of calcium 
oxalate (equivalent to 33,000 milligrams per kilo of squill, calculated 
from Fliickiger's assay) was fed to rats without producing any 
apparent effect. Since calcium oxalate is present in white as well as 
in red squill, and since the squill powders that kill rats in doses 
around 200 milligrams per kilo would contain only 6 milligrams per 
kilo of calcium oxalate in the lethal dose, it was concluded that 
calcium oxalate itself could not be the primary cause of death in rats 
dying after eating red-squill powders. 
PREPARATION OF RED-SQUILL POWDER ON A SEMICOMMERCIAL BASIS 
From 10 to 30 kilograms of squill bulbs were dried in a 65 by 150 
by 200 centimeter (25 by 60 by 80 inches, approximately) drier, 
holding six trays, each 27.5 by 90 centimeters (12 by 36 inches), and 
heated by closed steam coils. The temperature was kept constant 
within 4° or 5° C. during a given run. The outer scales were stripped 
off and the bulbs were sliced by hand or by slicing machines onto 
tared trays, until the trays were covered to a depth of 2 to 3 inches. 
The trays w^ere placed in the oven, w^hich had previously been heated 
to the desired temperature. Weights were taken from time to time 
until constancy of weight indicated that the bulbs had dried to 
equilibrium. The dried bulbs were then mixed and ground in an 
electric mill until the product passed through a 40-mesh sieve. The 
ground powder, after being again thoroughly mixed, was placed in 
screw-top cardboard mailing tubes for protection from the air. 
After six months to a year, the powder in these cardboard tubes 
sohdified into a hard cake, but no change in toxicity could be detected. 
(Table 10.) 
