Barium: A Cause of the Loco-Weed DiseaseCrawford, Albert C. (Albert Cornelius)
Science
Barium: A Cause of the Loco-Weed Disease
Crawford, Albert C. (Albert Cornelius)
Astragalus earlei; Barium
Of the same _Aragallus lamberti_ 200 grams were similarly digested and
the barium was removed with a few drops of H_{2}SO_{4}, the sulphuric
acid by PbCO_{3} and a little lead acetate, and the lead by H_{2}S. Such
an extract it was shown in the previous experiment would not kill.
However, to this extract was added 100 milligrams of crystallized barium
acetate in a solution and a precipitate formed. Nevertheless, the liquid
and the precipitate were fed on February 1, 1908, to a rabbit weighing
1,304 grams. On February 3 the animal weighed 1,233 grams; on February
4, 1,176 grams; February 5, 1,120 grams; February 6, 1,006 grams;
February 7, 1,219 grams; February 8, 1,219 grams; February 10, 1,304
grams.
As a control for this animal, to make sure that the loss in weight was
not due to the acetic acid set free by the treatment with H_{2}S, a
similar aqueous extract of the same lot of _Aragallus lamberti_ was
precipitated with very much more lead acetate than in the preceding
cases and also with lead subacetate and then H_{2}S. After evaporating
to dryness this was fed on February 8, 1908, to a rabbit weighing 1,035
grams. On February 11 it weighed 1,021 grams; on February 13, 1,091
grams, and on February 15, 1,120 grams, showing a gain in weight.
Of the dried _Astragalus missouriensis_ (Hugo, Colo., June, 1907) 400
grams with an ash content of 21.8 per cent and which was known to
contain barium (3 mg. BaSO_{4} in each 2 grams of the ash) were
extracted with water and fed in four doses corresponding to 100 grams
each in a period of four days. On November 18, 1907, the first day of
feeding, this rabbit weighed 1,856.7 grams. Fifteen days later it
weighed 1,984.3 grams.
One hundred grams of this dried plant after extraction with water were
found to leave about 51.1 grams[226] of the plant undissolved. This when
ashed yielded 8.2 grams of ash. Two grams of this ash yielded 5
milligrams of BaSO_{4}. In other words, the aqueous extract of the plant
was inactive and the barium was found practically unextracted in the
residue of the plant.
Evidently the barium in these dried plants had been converted into an
insoluble form by drying or by some peculiarity of its metabolism, and
was not extracted by water, but could be extracted by digesting the
plants with the combined digestive ferments, pepsin and pancreatin.
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