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PROFESSOR WYNDHAM R. DUNSTAN AND DR. THOMAS A. HENRY 
Cases of poisoning by young Sorghum have been also recorded in America and in 
Australia, where the plant is grown for forage purposes. 
In India the poisonous properties of the plant—which bears the vernacular name 
“juar” or “jowar”—do not appear to be so generally known, although several 
well authenticated cases of the poisoning of cattle by it, especially during drought, 
have been recorded, and much has been written on the subject by veterinary surgeons 
and others, who have, as a rule, assumed that the toxicity is due to the presence of 
a poisonous fungus or insect upon the plant, or that the Great Millet is not naturally 
poisonous, and that the deaths of cattle as the result of eating it are due to 
immoderate consumption, which causes a kind of suffocation from indigestion, 
technically known as “ ho veil.” The symptoms of “ hoven” are not unlike those of 
prussic acid poisoning, and it is possible that the various leguminous fodders which 
are known to be particularly liable to produce these effects may, at any rate in 
some cases, prove, like Lotus arahicus, and, as will be shown in the present paper, 
Sorghum vulgare, to furnish prussic acid. 
For the material we have employed in the course of this investigation we are 
indebted to Mr. E. A. Floyer, who was good enough to undertake its collection in 
Egypt at different stages of growth. 
Considerable confusion exists as to the identity of the “ Great Millets” grown in 
different tropical countries. Thus in India the plant is cultivated both as a spring 
and an autumn crop. The varieties ripening in the spring are probably originally 
derived from Sorghum halapense, a species indigenous to India, whilst the autumn 
crops are generally referred to Sorghum vulgare, yet both spring and autumn crops 
are called “ juar” or “jowar,” and are used by the natives indiscriminately. Again, 
in India a plant with an inflorescence more branched than that of Sorghum vulgare has 
been regarded as a distinct species, and named Sorghum saecharatum; this name is 
however given in the ‘ Index Kewensis’ as a synonym for Sorghum vulgare, of which 
the plant is probably merely a variety. 
The plant we have examined has been identified for us by Dr. Schweinfurth as 
undoubtedly true S. vulgare. 
Preliminary Experiments. 
It was observed that the young plant when crushed and moistened with cold 
water soon acquired a strong odour of hydrocyanic acid. The production of this 
acid was confirmed by pressing out a little of the liquid from the moist plant, and 
distilling it, when a liquid was obtained which gave the characteristic reactions of 
hydrogen cyanide. 
A few grammes of the plant were next exhausted by hot methylated alcohol in a 
Soxhlet extractor. The solvent was distilled from the solution and the residue 
boiled with water until nothing more dissolved. The aqueous liquid was then 
