AmiiS;i9fo.rm'}     Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  147 
knowledge  gained  in  the  treatment  of  this  disease,  he  having  gone 
to  Africa  to  study  it  at  first  hand. 
The  European  has  been  found  to  be  susceptible  to  the  disease  as 
well  as  the  negro,  and  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Victoria-Nyanza 
the  governments  are  co-operating  with  a  view  of  stamping  it  out, 
having  already  adopted  certain  restrictive  or  quarantine-like  meas- 
ures. The  disease  furnishes  three  points  of  attack,  namely,  the 
patient,  the  fly  and  the  organism  ( try pano some).  F.  Y. 
Plants  Injurious  to  Animals  formed  the  title  of  the  seventh 
lecture  of  the  series,  which  was  delivered  on  Friday,  January  7,  at 
3.30  p.m.,  by  Dr.  C.  Dwight  Marsh,  of  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry, 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C,  who  spoke  in 
place  of  Dr.  Rodney  H.  True,  who  was  prevented  from  being 
present.  Dr.  C.  A.  Weidemann  presided,  and  at  the  close  of  the 
address,  said,  after  thanking  Dr.  Marsh  for  the  information  given, 
that  he  had  gotten  a  broader  view  of  what  the  government  is  doing 
for  the  people  of  this  country. 
Dr.  Marsh  said  that  the  government  had  been  engaged  in  an 
investigation  of  the  loco-disease,  which  causes  such  heavy  losses  to 
stockmen  on  the  grazing  lands  of  the  Great  Plains  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  for  some  years  past.  Of  the  plants  causing  the 
disease  he  mentioned  the  following:  Zygadenus  elegans,  injurious 
to  sheep ;  the  larkspurs  or  Delphiniums  causing  losses  among  cattle ; 
and  lupines  causing  losses  among  sheep  and  also  horses.  The  atten- 
tion of  the  government  workers  was,  however,  confined  mostly  to 
the  two  plants,  Aragallus  lamberti  and  Astragalus  mollissimus,  these 
causing  greater  loss  than  all  other  poisonous  plants  combined,  and 
having  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  loco-plants  par  excellence.  Both 
plants  belong  to  the  Leguminosce.  Aragallus  lamberti,  also  com- 
monly known  as  "  rattleweed  "  or  "  white  loco,"  has  a  wide  range, 
extending  from  Alaska  on  the  north  down  through  the  whole  graz- 
ing region  of  the  Great  Plains  where  it  is  very  abundant.  Astragalus 
mollissimus  ("purple  loco,"  "woolly  loco,"  or  "Texas  loco")  is 
more  limited  in  its  range. 
The  word  "  loco,"  meaning  crazy,  is  of  Spanish  origin,  and  is 
applied  in  reference  to  the  peculiar  nervous  symptoms  manifested 
by  the  affected  animals.  Dr.  Marsh  stated  that  at  the  time  the 
government  experiments  were  begun,  it  had  not  been  definitely  deter- 
mined that  the  loco-disease  was  due  to  the  loco-plants,  a  number 
