COTTON SEEDS. 
§§ 636, 637.] 
interest, and a study of their methods of action will throw light upon 
many disease processes. 
At present there are no chemical means of detecting the presence of 
the toxalbumins mentioned. Should they be ever used for criminal 
purposes, other evidence will have to be obtained. 
XIV.—Ictrogen. 
§ 636. Ictrogen. —Various lupins, e.g. Lupinus luteus , L. angusti- 
folius, L. thermis, L. linifolius, L. hirsutus, contain a substance of which 
nothing chemically is known, save that it may be extracted by weakly 
alkaline water, and which has been named “ ictrogen ” ; this must not 
be confused with the alkaloid of lupins named “ lupinine,’' a bitter-tast¬ 
ing substance. In large doses a nerve poison, ictrogen has the unusual 
property of acting much like phosphorus. It causes yellow atrophy of 
the liver, and produces the following symptoms :—Intense jaundice; at 
first enlargement of the liver, afterwards contraction ; somnolence, fever, 
paralysis. The urine contains albumen and the constituents of the bile. 
After death there is found to be parenchymatous degeneration of the 
heart, kidneys, muscles, and liver. If the animal has suffered for some 
time, the liver may be cirrhotic. 
Hitherto the cases of poisoning have been confined to animals. 
Many thousands of sheep and a few horses and deer have, according to 
Robert, died in Germany from eating lupin seeds. Further information 
upon the active principles of lupins may be obtained by referring to 
the following treatises :—G. Schneidemuhl, “ Die lupinen Krankheit der 
Schafe,” Vortrdge /. Thierarzte, Ser. 6, Heft iv., Leipzig, 1883; C. 
Arnold and G. Schneidemuhl, Vierter Beitrag zur Klarstellung der Ursciche 
u. des Wesens der Lupinose, Luneburg, 1883 ; Julius Lowenthal, TJeber 
die physiol, u. toxicol. Wirkungen der Lujnnenalkaloide, Inaug.-Diss., 
Konigsberg, 1888. 
XV.—Cotton Seeds. 
§ 637. Cotton seeds, used as an adulterant to linseed cake, etc., 
have caused the death of sheep and calves. Cotton seeds contain a 
poison of which nothing is chemically known, save that it is poisonous. 
It produces anaemia and cachexia in animals when given in small 
repeated doses. 
After death the changes are, under these circumstances, confined to 
the kidneys, these organs showing all the signs of nephritis. If, how¬ 
ever, the animal has eaten a large quantity of cotton seeds, then there 
is gastro-enteritis as well as inflammation of the kidneys. 
