156 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXX, No. 2 
That parasitism and metabolism are 
subjects with many factors in common 
has recently been emphasized by 
Hall (5), and it is evident that the 
transition from ordinary food to drugs 
is a gradual one, passing through such 
inorganic substances as water and 
sodium chloride to the various inor¬ 
ganic drugs, and through the various 
vegetable foods containing small 
amounts of essential oils, alkaloids or 
glucosids to these substances as de¬ 
rived from plants containing relatively 
large amounts. In the transition one 
encounters large numbers of substances 
having at least feeble anthelmintic 
power and some with considerable 
anthelmintic potency. Thus tobacco 
may be added to the feed of sheep or 
poultry and if suitably used may have 
some little anthelmintic value, and 
pumpkin seed has considerable efficacy 
in removing tapeworms. The possi¬ 
bility, therefore, that raw onions fed 
for a considerable period of time might 
prove to have some anthelmintic value 
is not altogether remote on theoretical 
grounds. Unfortunately, the recom¬ 
mendations of Blanchasal ( 3 ) left the 
case still based on theoretical grounds, 
so far as any definite scientific evidence 
of the value of onions is concerned, 
and did not advance the subject dis¬ 
tinctly beyond the stage of the onion 
amulet. 
EXPERIMENTAL DATA 
To obtain definite evidence on this 
subject to replace or at least to supple¬ 
ment the speculations and theory of 
physicians and veterinarians, the writ¬ 
ers conducted an experiment as follows: 
Four dogs were fed daily on what may 
be called an onion Hamburger steak 
made up to contain 2 oz. of raw onion, 
which was regarded as the equivalent 
of one onion of average size, ground up 
with 1 lb. of raw or cooked meat for 
each dog daily. The first feeding was 
on February 27, 1924, and the experi¬ 
ment was continued for 60 days. Early 
in April it was noted that the dogs were 
not cleaning up this amount of food, 
and beginning April 9, after 43 days on 
the previous ration, the amount of meat 
was cut in half, the amount of onion 
being left as before. One dog, No. 658, 
was found dead on the thirty-seventh 
day of the experiment; the other dogs 
survived through the 60-day period and 
were then killed. The feces of all ani¬ 
mals were examined daily for worms 
passed, but the feces for Saturdays and 
Sundays were not always kept sepa¬ 
rate. In the following protocols the 
worms found in the feces are reported 
for consecutive days, failure to find 
worms is expressed by 0, failure to pass 
feces is expressed by a hyphen (-), and 
the combined record for a Saturday and 
Sunday is given in parentheses, to call 
attention to the fact that this represents 
a two-day period. The protocols, 
showing worms passed but ignoring 
tapeworm segments, are as follows: 
Dog No. 654: 0; 1 whipworm; 0; 0; 
1 whipworm; 1 whipworm; 0; 0; 0; 1 
hookworm; (0); 0; 0; 0; 0; 0; -; 0; 0; 1 
whipworm; -; -; 5 whipworms; (0); 0; 
0; 0; 0; 0; (0); 3 whipworms; 1 whip¬ 
worm; 0; 3 whipworms; 2 whipworms; 
0; 1 whipworm; 3 whipworms; 0; 0; 0; 
0; 0; 1 whipworm; 0: 0; 0; (1 whip¬ 
worm); 0; 0; 0; 0; 0; (1 whipworm) ;0. 
Total worms passed: 25 whipworms 
and 1 hookworm. 
Dog No. 656: 1 whipworm; -; 0; 
0; 7 whipworms; 1 hookworm; 1 whip¬ 
worm; 0; 0; (0); 0; 0; 0; 0; 1 hookworm; 
0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; -; 0 ; 0 ; (-); 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; ( 0 ); 
0 ; 0 ; -; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; -; 0 ; 0 ; 
0; -; (0); -; 0; 0; 0; 0; (0); 0. Total 
worms passed: 9 whipworms and 2 
hookworms. 
Dog No. 658: 0; 0; 0; 0; -; 0; -; 0; 
1 ascarid; -; (0); -; 0; 0; -; 0; -; 0; 0; -; 
0; 0; (0); 0; 0; (1 ascarid);-; 
-; 0. Total worms passed: 2 ascarids. 
Dog 659: 1 whipworm; 0; 0; -; 1 
whipworm, 1 ascarid; 4 whipworms; 0; 
-; 14 whipworms; (5 whipworms); -; 2 
whipworms; 8 whipworms; 2 whip¬ 
worms; -; 6 whipworms; 1 whipworm; 
1 whipworm; 0; 1 whipworm; 6 whip¬ 
worms; -; (1 whipworm); 0; 0; 0; 0; 0; 
(2 whipworms); 2 whipworms; 0; 0; 1 
whipworm, 1 hookworm; 4 whipworms; 
7 whipworms; -; 3 whipworms; 0; 1 
whipworm; 1 whipworm; 9 whipworms; 
-; 0; 1 hookworm; 3 whipworms; 1 hook¬ 
worm; (9 whipworms, 1 hookworm); -; 
0; 1 whipworm, 1 hookworm; -; 0; 0; 
-; Total worms passed: 96 whipworms, 
5 hookworms, and 1 ascarid. To this 
should be added 5 hookworms found in 
the large intestine postmortem, making 
a total of 10 hookworms passed. 
These dogs, with the exception of the 
one (No. 658) which had died, were 
killed on the sixtieth day and examined 
for worms remaining. The findings for 
all dogs were as follows: 
Dog No. 654: 314 whipworms, 20 
hookworms, 74 Dipylidium sp. and 1 
Taenia sp. 
Dog No. 656: 2 whipworms, 18 hook¬ 
worms, and 3 Taenia sp. 
Dog. No. 658: 3 whipworms, 5 hook¬ 
worms, and numerous Dipylidium sp. 
Dog No. 659: 34 whipworms, 242 
hookworms, and 3 Dipylidium sp. 
From the number of whipworms 
passed during the course of the experi¬ 
ment it might be suspected that onions 
in the diet exerted an unfavorable 
