o T 
known amount of ; poisonous lng-redi^nt, butns.rather‘that. ; 
f a substance that becomesincreasingly virulent after it lias , 
een eaten. It seems to me that, the chemical .assay of the c 
lant, as far as I have determined, does., not at. present ac- , 
ount for the physiological action of the drug, and I will say 
tat I would node at all surprised if it would be shown that 
he plant does not contain a fixed constituent that will produce 
he craziness that follows after its use as a food. I am rather 
,f the opinion, therefore, that-We will have to look for a tei- 
le-ntative poison that results after the plant is eaten, .rather 
han a -poison: contained in the plant. \ ■ I would not.be. at al|- : 
urpri&ed .if, lin the study of this, plant, it will be showq that,, 
mder the-influence of the digestive agents, a substance ,i$ prq-• 
luced which, accounts for the subsequent action of the plant..,, 
n other words, it is my surmise that the poisonous action ot 
he Ibco weed is.due, perhaps, tpa product instead of an cduct. 
t remains to be seen whether this product is of a nature o \. 
he-microbe onof-thie ptomaine, whether it is an alkaloid or.atr, 
..rminism.- 1.will add that in this surmise I . am, not carrying 
nvself beyond what has been .demonstrated to be true, o 
ither substances outside of foods, and will call yo,ur attention,, 
hat in .modern medicine we now stise a preparation ■<> 
jequirity, which depends, altogether om its action from the 
5warms of microbes that form in the infusion of the bean? , 
and-.h will-add that, it is then a violent poison, while the bean 
itself-does not contain a : constituent-.of.,that nature, It, may - 
be that I am off in my surmise, but at least I think that loco, 
will bear investigation in thisdir-ection, and I would suggest 
that a careful examination be made microscopically,, ocally, ol : 
the parts of the animal affected after the plant, has been , 
eatersh You.-will perceive from the-foregoing that win e the 
plant undoubtedly contains an alkaloid, or alkaloids,.i do npt 
believe this alkaloid is of the importance somt? thinkqb 
...The statement- of. Prof, Lloyd is.-,worthyof. yery.coreful, 
consideration. I have been long persuaded- that the best way 
to study the loco question .is to spend the summer where the 
animals are said to ,be locoed, to see what .the animals, eat, 
how they, act,-what they-drink, and to carefully observe their 
symptoms and post mortem appearances.; l he reason why t. 
make these comments-is. that there are so many ,contradictory, 
statements made to-, one. that, yon .can bcheve but In t q ot 
what you hear about.locoed animals,, Many of the, ranchmen 
call the larkspur, or poison weed, the loco. A chemical anal¬ 
ysis was also made of the larkspur. It was treated the same 
as the loco weed by the Dragendorff method. The solution 
