Kobert[134] has also tested the activity of _Astragalus mollissimus_ and says, "Ich fand _Astragalus mollissimus_ ziemlich unwirksam." Doctor McEackran[135] fed dried _Astragalus mollissimus_ and _Aragallus lamberti_ mixed with feed to a stabled animal for two months without result. (Animal not stated).[136] Similar negative experiments are reported from the State of Washington, but the amounts used were too small to form any conclusions.[137] Mr. V. K. Chesnut[138] has busied himself with the loco problem, but mainly in an executive capacity, his own efforts being directed to the study of the relation of the loco plants to the disease on the range. He has done no laboratory work. Chesnut and Wilcox made numerous autopsies on sheep and experiments on animals. They claimed that an extract of _Aragallus spicatus_ produced some slight narcotic action in rabbits. Their pathological examinations failed to show any characteristic lesion, but they state that the cerebral membranes were in all cases slightly congested. They deny any causative relationship to the presence of worms or with feeding upon alkalis. They believe that sheep are more likely to become locoed if not salted regularly. Chesnut describes one case in which a lamb became locoed by nursing from a locoed mother. In 1901 Reid Hunt, at that time a special agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, studied the loco question in Montana, working mainly with _Aragallus spicatus_. He moistened the ground-up plant with 93 per cent ethyl alcohol and then percolated it until exhausted. This extract was evaporated and taken up with water so that 1 c.c. of the solution corresponded to 10 grams of the plant. This was fed to an active young rabbit weighing 490 grams, 6 c.c. being fed by the mouth and followed in about an hour by 10 c.c. more, and two hours after this by 15 c.c. This rabbit showed no symptoms during the following day. The next day it was very dull and there was marked muscular weakness, as the rabbit's legs were spread wide apart and his nose rested on the ground. Later respiration became very slow and the pupils were dilated. The paralytic symptoms increased and finally, after a convulsive movement, the animal died, thirty-six hours after the first feeding. Hunt merely states of the post-mortem examination that the stomach was well filled and that the "walls seem normal." Hunt tried to isolate an active principle by the Dragendorff method, but failed to obtain any physiologically active shakings. He tried hypodermic injections of 80 per cent alcohol extractions of the fresh green plant, and after the injection of an extract corresponding to 60 grams of the fresh plant there was no effect produced. He tried to induce symptoms by feeding the plant itself to rabbits, but was unsuccessful, as the rabbits refused to eat the plant. He was not able to induce symptoms with the extracts of the dried plant.[139]