1 IS BUREAU OF animal l NM 9TBY, 
per LOO pounds live weight daily, for forty-three days; the total 
amount of cotton-seed meal fed was 21.60 per <-«-ni <»t* the average live 
weight. In the second fatal experiment one of the pi.L r s died "after 
having appeared gaunt and weak for two days." This pig averaged 
about 60 pounds in weight and up to the time of death ha<l been fed 
5, i pounds of ootton-seed meal. This was a total of 9.2 pounds per ion 
pounds live weight. The pig had not had more tliah 0.25 pound cotton- 
seed meal dailj per LOOpounds live weight. The other pig in tin- same 
l(»i showed an unthrifty condition and the ration u;h changed. 
i he Kansas experience on page 1 22, where a similarly small amount of 
ootton-seed meal produced fatal results.) The ration in both experi- 
ments \\a>. cotton-seed meal one-fifth, corn meal four-fifths. 
In another test wit h a ration of corn meal three-fouii as, cotton-seed 
meal one-fourth, the pigs were noticed to be out of condition toward 
the thirty-fifth day, bui uo deaths occurred. They averaged about L18 
pounds in weight, and the amount of ootton-seed meal which made 
t hem sick was 25.5 pounds. This was 21.4 pounds per LOO pounds live 
weight, or 0.61 pound daily per LOO pounds live weight. 
The causes of death are regarded by Dinwiddie a>> being both 
essentia] and contributory, the essential cause being the toxic princi- 
ple supposed to be present. He describes the immediate cause of 
death as follows: 
In all our cases the immediate cause of death was obviously asphyxia, doe to 
pressure on the longs by the dropsical effusion into the pleural cavities. In its 
final manifestations the disease was an acute dropsy of the pleural and pericar- 
dia] Baca The congestion of the abdominal organs, and especially of the portal 
system, can be attributed to obstructed circulation through the collapsed lungs 
damming the blood back in the venous system, and hence a pi "lidary to 
the pleuritic effusion. That this portal engorgement was secondary to the pleural 
effusion. I infer from the absence of degenerative or other changes in the liver 
Which could account for it and hum absence of any marked peritoneal effusion. 
Ascites would be the firjtf result of such extreme portal congestion if it were pri- 
mary. All of these conditions, however, are necessarily the result of Borne fun- 
damental cause, the nature of which is yet to be discovered. An acute hydro- 
thorax and hydrops pericardii, unaccompanied by ascites and without any 
antecedent pleuritis. is a condition rarely met with in human pathology. Non- 
inflammatory dropsical effusion maybe due to mechanical obstruction, cardiac 
disease, degenerative changes in the kidney or liver, or to physical or chemical 
changes in the blood itself. Neither of the first three can-.-; appears to be in 
operation here. Further researches will probably show some grave alteration in 
the composition of the blood as the primary effect of acute cotton-seed meal poi- 
soning. In hogs, at least, nervous derangements are not manifested, so fai 
have seen. 
Points thai may in time lead to the discovery of the trouble are 
that old meal seems to be more fatal than fresh, that COttOU-seed meal 
is more fatal than COttOU seed in any condition, and that the poison- 
ous agent is not in the oil. but seems to be entirely left in the cake 
a lml. \. . r6, Arkansas Bxpt Sta, 
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