Part 6

The rabbits showing the chronic effects of these plants exhibit symptoms which have a marked parallelism with those reported as occurring in larger herbivora (horses and cattle) on the range when locoed; that is, the loss of appetite (Experiment No. 9), the emaciation and loss in weight (Experiment No. 9), the dullness and stupor, with more or less anesthesia (Experiment No. 7), the disturbance in the visual function (Experiment No. 9), and the mental symptoms (Experiment No. 6). The occasional abortion compares with what has been observed in larger animals. The dried _Astragalus mollissimus_ and _Aragallus lamberti_ still retained their poisonous properties, as we were able to kill with aqueous extracts of the dried plants made in the laboratory under the proper conditions.

=EXPERIMENTS ON SHEEP.=

_Experiment No. 1._--On May 31, 1906, a sheep weighing 32.2 kilos was fed with a concentrated aqueous extract of 1,000 grams of the fresh _Astragalus mollissimus_ preserved in chloroform water. The temperature at 11 o'clock, the time of feeding, was 103.4°F. At 11.45 a.m. this dose was repeated. At 12 o'clock the temperature was 104.1°F. At 12.45 the animal urinated. At 1.10 p.m. a similar extract of 2,000 grams was fed. The total liquid used was 1,500 c.c. On June 1 no symptoms were noted. On June 5 an extract of 3,000 grams of fresh _Aragallus lamberti_ and 3,000 grams of _Astragalus mollissimus_ was fed. After feeding this the animal could be easily turned over on its back and its ear pricked with impunity. The animal at this time weighed 30.8 kilos. On June 6, at 11 a.m., the temperature was 104°F. The sheep had numerous soft stools, and was very dull, and would not eat. On June 7 the temperature was 103.7°F. and the sheep still refused to eat. On the 8th the temperature was 103.2°F. at 10.40 a.m., and the stools were still numerous and soft.

There were then fed 640 c.c., representing the aqueous extract of 4,000 grams of the fresh _Aragallus lamberti_. The animal could be easily turned on its back. It weighed at this time 28.57 kilos. On June 9, at 10.47 a.m., the temperature was 103.4°F. The sheep still did not eat, but had no diarrhea. It now weighed 27.9 kilos, and the temperature was 103°F. at 10.45 a.m.

On June 13 the animal began to eat, and 1,700 c.c. of fluid, representing 5,500 grams of the fresh _Aragallus lamberti_, were fed. The temperature at 12.30 p.m. was 103°F. On June 14 the temperature was 103.4°F., the animal weighed 28.3 kilos, and refused food. On June 16 the weight was 28.3 kilos; the temperature at 2 p.m. was 103.5°F. There was no diarrhea.

On June 19 the aqueous extract of 1,000 grams of the dried _Astragalus mollissimus_ was fed with 420 c.c. of water. The temperature was 102.6° F. On June 20 the temperature was 102.9°F. at 10.45 a.m.

On June 21 500 c.c., representing the aqueous extract of 1,000 grams of the dried _Astragalus mollissimus_, were again fed. The animal now weighed 26.9 kilos. On June 26 the animal weighed 26 kilos, and its gait was very uncertain. The temperature was 104.2°F. It was fed 300 c.c. of fluid, representing the extract of 400 grams of the dried _Astragalus mollissimus_. On June 29 the animal weighed 26.8 kilos and the temperature was 102.8°F. It was fed the extract of 1,000 grams of dried _Astragalus mollissimus_ in 500 c.c. of water. On June 30, at 10.45 a. m., the temperature was 104.2°F. The animal was very dull and died at night.

At autopsy the intestines and stomach merely appeared pale. There were no worms, and the lungs and other organs appeared normal.

_Experiment No. 2._--A lamb weighing 15.4 kilos was fed on July 6, at 1.10 p.m., with 640 c.c. of fluid, representing the extract of 2,000 grams of _Astragalus mollissimus_. At 1.17 p.m. the animal could be turned on its back, and it regained its feet with difficulty. At 1.24 p. m. it urinated and had a stool. The lamb died during the night.

The autopsy the following morning showed the heart filled with clots; lungs normal save for hypostatic congestion. The cerebral and dural vessels were dilated. About 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls of bloody serum were found at the base of the brain. There was none in the lateral ventricles, and no clots. The kidneys exhibited no marked congestion. There was no fluid found in the peritoneal or the pleural or pericardial cavities. The first stomach, however, contained small hemorrhagic spots, and the second was black. There were small hemorrhages in the intestines.

_Experiment No. 3._--July 13, 1906, a sheep weighing 19.5 kilos was fed with 640 c.c. of fluid, representing the extract of 2,000 grams of _Aragallus lamberti_. The temperature at the time of feeding, 1.10 p. m., was 105.3°F. At 1.49 p.m. the sheep could be easily turned on its back. At 2.23 p.m. the temperature was 103.6°F. At 3.42 p.m. the temperature was 103.5°F. At 4.20 p.m. the respiration was fairly rapid. On July 14, at 11.15 a.m., the temperature was 103.6°F. The sheep would run about but could easily be turned over. It had not eaten, but there was diarrhea present. July 15, at 3.30 p.m., the temperature was 104°F. The animal had eaten. On July 17 the temperature was 104°F. and the animal weighed 18.8 kilos. On the 27th it weighed 17.2 kilos; on August 29, 20.8 kilos.

_Experiment No. 4._--A lamb weighing 19 kilos was fed August 21, 1906, with 740 c.c., representing the aqueous extract of 2,500 grams of the fresh _Astragalus mollissimus_, shipped to Washington in September, 1905. This animal ate at night, but the following day was dull. When seen on August 27 there was diarrhea present and the animal was still dull. On the 28th the animal died, weighing 16.7 kilos. There was no autopsy on account of decomposition.

_Experiment No. 5._--A lamb weighing 15.6 kilos was fed on September 4, 1906, with an aqueous extract representing 3,500 grams of the dried _Aragallus lamberti_, 1,000 c.c. of water being used. The temperature at the time of feeding was 104.3°F. At 2.48 p.m. the animal on rising to its feet developed a slight tremor of the fore legs and showed marked disinclination to stand on its feet. The temperature was 104°F. The animal died at 4.25 p.m. The post-mortem was negative, save for some reddening of the second stomach.[157]

These feeding experiments in sheep can not be considered quantitative, because, as is shown later, aqueous extracts of dried plants are often inactive, yet poisonous principles may be obtained from the plants by treatment with digestive fluids.

Extracts of dried loco plants vary much in their toxicity; with some the writer was unable to kill rabbits, even when an extract of 300 grams of the dried plant was used. It is interesting to note that when the field station was established at Hugo, Colo., in 1905, almost all the aqueous extracts of dried specimens sent to Washington would produce the acute symptoms of poisoning in rabbits, but during the third season of its existence many of the samples sent from the same area were much less active, if not inactive.

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FOOTNOTES:

[157] There was a slight odor of chloroform noticed on opening the stomach, so that perhaps the imperfect removal of the chloroform due to a hurried evaporation of the extract should be taken into consideration in this case.

=LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS--CHEMICAL.=

The fact that the aqueous extract of 500 grams of the fresh _Astragalus mollissimus_, or of 200 grams (in some cases 100 grams) of the dried plant, when fed by mouth, would regularly kill a rabbit weighing about 907 grams, with certain definite clinical symptoms and pathological lesions, was at first arbitrarily selected as our test to aid in the isolation of the active principle. Later the production of chronic symptoms by the aqueous extract or digestion of 200 grams of these dried plants given in doses of 100 grams each on two successive days was considered essential. Carnivora, such as dogs and cats, vomit so easily as to render them unsuitable for these investigations. The aqueous extract was distilled with and without steam, also after acidifying with sulphuric acid, and likewise after the addition of magnesium oxid, but in all cases the distillate was inactive.

The concentrated aqueous extract was shaken by the Dragendorff method with petroleum ether, benzol, chloroform, ether, and amyl alcohol, both in alkaline and acid condition, but the shakings yielded no physiologically active body. Shakings by the Otto-Stas method also proved inactive. Lead acetate, lead subacetate, silver nitrate, mercuric chlorid, alcohol, phosphotungstic acid, trichloracetic acid, ammonium hydrate, sodium carbonate, sodium hydrate, Mayer's solution, uranyl acetate, silver oxid, and barium carbonate also failed to remove the active constituent. They gave heavy precipitates in all cases, but these proved inactive. Hydrocyanic acid was sought for with negative results. The pathological lesions in the very acute cases suggested in some respects oxalic acid, a saponin, a metal, or perhaps a toxalbumin as the active principle, but none of the precipitants for saponins, such as lead and copper, or the magnesium oxid method yielded a body which was active. Proteids were excluded by the fact that the various proteid precipitants--alcohol, trichloracetic acid, lead subacetate, mercuric sulphate or chlorid, and salting out with ammonium sulphate and sodium chlorid (complete saturation and half saturation)--failed to give an active precipitate. Glucosidal or alkaloidal bodies were also excluded. On dialysing for twenty-four hours, some of the active principle went into the dialysate and some remained in the dialyser. Ether yielded a precipitate from alcoholic solution which failed to kill. The possibility of the activity of the plants being due to its normal acidity was excluded by neutralizing the extract with sodium hydrate and precipitating the salts with alcohol. The filtrate proved active after removing the alcohol.

The negative results in looking for active alkaloidal, or glucosidal, or proteid bodies suggested that perhaps the action was due to some inorganic constituent. The writer then boiled the extract three minutes and as the filtrate was still found active and the proteid precipitate inactive became convinced of the inorganic nature of the active constituents, and finally incinerated the plant. The acid extract from this was also active, but death was delayed several hours. This was believed to be due to the insoluble form into which the compound was converted.[158] In fact, the question of solubility and the avoidance of an acid reaction, which of itself may kill, are the main points to keep in mind.

These experiments indicated that the injurious action toward rabbits of the _Astragalus mollissimus_ and _Aragallus lamberti_ collected at Hugo, Colo., was due to one or more inorganic constituents,[159] but it does not follow that all loco plants have the same poisonous principle nor that the same species occurring on all soils has the same poisonous action.[160]

Of _Astragalus mollissimus_ from Imperial, Nebr., collected in 1906, 200 grams were ashed in a platinum bowl and extracted with water. This aqueous extract when neutralized produced no marked symptoms in a rabbit and the weight of the animal remained about the same.

The ash undissolved after this extraction was then treated with acetic acid and water overnight, and after carefully evaporating off the acetic acid on the bath (tested by litmus paper) the residue was fed, partly in solution and partly suspended in water, to a rabbit weighing 1,800.2 grams. Next day the rabbit weighed 1,771.8 grams, showed paralysis of the limbs, and died during the morning. The stomach was intensely reddened and contracted.

An extract of a similar ash was made by boiling the same amount with a large quantity of 94 per cent alcohol. This was evaporated in vacuo and taken in water and fed to a rabbit weighing 1,459.9 grams. On the sixth day the animal died, having lost 70.9 grams in weight. The stomach showed reddening but no ulcers.

An acetic acid aqueous extract, made from the ash after the alcoholic extraction, proved inactive, showing that the alcohol had removed the active bodies. A 70 per cent alcohol extract of another ashed lot proved active, killing the rabbit overnight.

Of _Astragalus mollissimus_ from Imperial, Nebr., 200 grams were ashed in a platinum bowl and the ash treated with acetic acid water. After freeing from acid, one half of the solution and emulsion was fed one day and the second half fed the following day. The rabbit at the time of feeding weighed 1,275.7 grams. Fourteen days later the animal died, weighing 1,105.6 grams. No autopsy.

A similar extract of the ash from between 100 and 150 grams of the same dried plant produced death in a rabbit weighing 1,190 grams in two hours and fifty-eight minutes.

The acetic acid extract of the ash of 125 grams of a mixture of the dried _Astragalus mollissimus_ and _Aragallus lamberti_ received from Hugo, Colo., June, 1907, after freeing from acid, was fed to a rabbit weighing 1,304 grams on July 29. On July 30 it weighed 1,332.4 grams. August 1 it weighed 1,219 grams, and it died the same day. The stomach was reddened and showed ulcers.

A similar extract from 250 grams of the same dried plants on boiling gave a heavy precipitate, but this precipitate was inactive, while the filtrate killed a rabbit in four hours.

Of dry _Aragallus lamberti_ collected in September, 1906, 200 grams were extracted with water and fed to a rabbit weighing 1,516.7 grams. Two days later the animal weighed 1,360 grams and died the same day.

The ash from 200 grams of the same dried plant was extracted with acetic acid, and after evaporating off the acid this was fed to a rabbit weighing 2,045.3 grams. Seven days later the animal weighed 1,729.3 grams, having lost 316 grams in weight.

The ash from 250 grams of the same species of plant, after similar treatment with acetic acid, induced death in a rabbit weighing 2,069 grams in 2 hours and 20 minutes. The stomach was inflamed.

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FOOTNOTES:

[158] Work is now being done by the writer on the inorganic constituents of various plants.

[159] Scattered throughout the veterinary literature one finds cases of poisoning in animals with symptoms similar to those occurring in locoed animals which are attributed to eating plants grown on a peculiar soil, as in Oserow, Ueber Krankh. d. Pferde, welche Aehnlichkeit mit der Cerebro-spinal meningitis haben, aber durch Vergiftungen mit Gräsern von Salzgründen (Salzmooren) verursacht werden, Journ. f. Allgem. Veterinär-Medicin, St. Petersburg, p. 486, 1906. Abstract in Jahresber. über d. Leistungen auf dem Gebiete d. Veterinär-Medicin, vol. 26, p. 226, 1906.--Compare also Étude sur Quelques Plantes Vénéneuses des Regions Calcaires, Bul. Soc. Cent. de Méd. Vét., vol. 48, p. 378. 1894.

[160] After completing this work the writer found that Sayre had said that he "had the suggestion that the harm coming from this plant is due to the inorganic constituents; this clue has been followed up, but like the others has brought us no nearer to the solution of the problem." Kans. Acad. Sci. Trans., vol. 18, p. 144. 1903.

=EFFECT OF THE AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF ASHED LOCO PLANTS.=

The filtrate from the ash from 200 grams of dried _Astragalus mollissimus_, from Imperial, Nebr., after similar treatment with acetic acid water and freed from free acid, killed a rabbit in several hours.

Hydrochloric acid also rendered the toxic agent of the ash soluble in water, but proved unsuitable for our work, as it was found impossible to obtain neutral residues by mere evaporation on the bath. At first one of the heavy metals or members of the H_{2}S group[161] was suspected, but on passing H_{2}S into the slightly acid extract of the ash no active precipitate resulted, but the filtrate remained active.[162] A special Marsh test was, however, made for arsenic and antimony with negative results. A test for tungsten with zinc and hydrochloric acid proved negative.

Members of the ammonium sulphid group were then suspected, but while ammonium hydrate alone gave a heavy white precipitate, this precipitate, as also the black one with ammonium sulphid, proved inactive save when not thoroughly freed from acid (used for solution). The action of this ammonium sulphid precipitate on rabbits was watched for sixteen days, but without result. Nevertheless, the writer still suspected some of the rare earths.[163]

Sestini[164] had found that if certain plants were nourished with a solution of a beryllium salt, in the ash of these plants could be shown the presence of beryllium.

Two grams of beryllium chlorid were fed in aqueous solution to a rabbit weighing 1,800.2 grams. In four days this animal lost 241 grams and died. The stomach showed the same general pallor seen in chronic locoed rabbits, but no ulcers. The tests for beryllium by Sestini's method, however, failed to show beryllium in the active loco plants examined.

Thorium chlorid, cerium chlorid, and lanthanum chlorid in 2-gram doses and zirconium chlorid in 3-gram doses produced no chronic symptoms in rabbits or, in fact, any disturbance. Titanium chlorid, 2.5 grams, evaporated in the air and then fed in an emulsion to a rabbit, also proved inactive, but this inactivity may have been due to its insolubility.

Thallium nitrate c. p., in aqueous solution, in 2-gram doses, killed a rabbit weighing 2,154.6 grams in two hours and fifteen minutes. The stomach in this case, while pink, was not hemorrhagic.

Zirconium chlorid has an astringent taste, and if fed repeatedly will cause the metallic astringent action. On boiling an acetic acid solution of the ash with sodium acetate a precipitate formed.[165]

The presence of zirconium was thus suspected and Dr. E. C. Sullivan, of the United States Geological Survey, estimated it to be present in the ash of a sample of _Aragallus lamberti_ in about 0.01 per cent zirconium oxid, with also 0.1 per cent titanium dioxid.[166]

Zirconium chlorid, 3 grams, was fed in aqueous solution to a rabbit weighing 850.5 grams. This rabbit lost 96 grams in seven days, and was then fed 3 grams more of the same solution and the following day 2 grams more. It died eight days later, weighing 656 grams. The stomach and intestines were contracted, but showed no ulcers. However, 4 grams killed a rabbit in two hours and thirty-two minutes.

The filtrate, after treating an active solution of the ash with hydrogen peroxid, proved active, thus showing that zirconium was not entirely responsible for the poisonous action.

Yttrium, while not found in the plant, was administered as yttrium chlorid to a rabbit weighing 1,530 grams in 2-gram doses in solution. This animal gained 113.4 grams in five days.

Didymium chlorid c. p., in 3-gram doses, was fed to a rabbit weighing 1,020 grams. This rabbit lost 70 grams in four days.

The administration of manganese acetate[167] in 2-gram doses was followed by a gain in weight of a rabbit of 42.5 grams, while a dose of 3 grams killed a rabbit weighing 1,077 grams in two hours and thirty minutes. Wohlwill[168] has emphasized the fact that the members of the iron group owe their comparative harmlessness to not being absorbed by the gastro-intestinal tract.

No zinc was found in the plant.[169]

It is well recognized that potassium salts given hypodermically are decidedly toxic and that ammonium salts given per os will kill, so that the writer considered the possibility of other members of the group being responsible for the injurious action. The fact that the alkaline distillate of the plant proved inactive eliminated the ammonium salts.

Cæsium chlorid c. p., 2 grams, was fed in aqueous solution to a rabbit weighing 1,077.2 grams. In six days this animal lost 255 grams in weight, when it died.[170]

A second rabbit, weighing 1,020.5 grams, was fed with 2 grams of the same solution and lost 368 grams in twenty-one days. The spectroscopic test, however, failed to show cæsium in the ashed plant. Rubidium chlorid c. p., in 2-gram doses, proved inactive. The platinum chlorid precipitate from the extract of the plant proved inactive.

The fact that the filtrate after precipitation of the phosphates by tin and nitric acid and H_{2}S was active excluded the phosphoric acid radical, and the filtrate after treatment with BaCO_{3} and AgO being active excluded the H_{2}SO_{4} and HCl radicals as the toxic body. Fluorine was proved to be absent.

A radio-active substance was suspected, but Dr. L. J. Briggs, Physicist of Bureau of Plant Industry, reported that the dried plant showed no special amount of radio-activity.[171]

Power and Cambier, Sayre, and Kennedy had previously called attention to the abundance of calcium in the plant, and the writer's investigations confirm this. Pharmacologists are averse to believing calcium given per os poisonous. The writer has, however, fed 5 grams of the acetate of calcium in solution to a rabbit weighing 652 grams. This animal died in two hours, with marked irritation of the stomach, the result being due to the so-called "salt action." Much larger amounts were fed in divided doses, but without injury. Calcium phosphate and calcium sulphate in 2-gram doses proved harmless to a rabbit weighing about 1,400 grams. Three grams of magnesium acetate[172] were fed in solution for five successive days to a rabbit weighing 1,417 grams, but without apparent effect.

Strontium acetate c. p., in 2-gram doses, likewise caused no disturbance.[173] No strontium in any amount recognizable by chemical tests was proved in the plant. So that by a process of exclusion the writer was forced to think of barium as the main cause of the trouble.

The writer noted that if the ashed plant was extracted with H_{2}SO_{4} water and this extract freed from sulphuric acid with PbCO_{3} and H_{2}S the solution proved inactive to rabbits and also that after this extraction the acetic acid extract of the ash failed to kill. In other words, the sulphate of our body was insoluble in water. At times in passing H_{2}S into active solutions of the ashed plant freed from the acetic acid by evaporation the filtrate and likewise the precipitate were inactive. Noyes and Bray[174] have noted that if H_{2}S is passed into certain solutions in the presence of an oxydizing agent, such as ferric iron, H_{2}SO_{4} would be formed, which would throw any barium out of solution.

In one blood-pressure record made with a dog (vagi nerves cut), a rise in blood pressure (a characteristic physiological action of barium) was seen to follow the intravenous injection of the aqueous extract of the plant, in spite of its normal acid reaction.

Accidentally the writer found that Sprengel[175] had reported the presence of barium in _Astragalus exscapus_, a closely allied plant. Barium has also been found in the vegetable world by Scheele in 1788, and later by Eckard,[176] who found it in beech, while Forchhammer[177] proved it in birch, and Lutterkorth found it in the soil of the same area in which Eckard worked. Dworzak[178] noted the occurrence of traces of this element in wheat grown along the Nile, and Knop[179] found it in the soil. Doctor Balfour, of Khartum, Egypt, informed the writer that he knew of no cases in which this barium in wheat had produced poisoning. Hornberger[180] found barium both in the red beech grown in Germany and in the soil on which these trees grew. It has also been claimed that various marine plants may take up barium from the sea.[181]