In describing the acute form of lupinosis Pammel adds that the initial temperature may be as high as 104° to 106° F., but that it is intermittent and gradually falls just before death. The pulse may reach 130 per minute and the respirations 100. A bloody froth may issue from the nostrils. Animals apparently prefer the recumbent position, extend the head on the ground, and seem entirely oblivious to all surroundings. At first there is constipation, but later diarrhœa may set in and the excreta be tinged with blood. In the chronic form the symptoms are not so violent. Jaundice may be entirely absent, and emaciation and anæmia may be the chief signs.
Chesnut and Wilcox record a case in which two sheep were each given 150 medium-sized pods of a native lupine, and seemed to like them. In 45 minutes, however, they became frenzied and died an hour later. They give the symptoms as practically the same as those caused by European species of Lupinus; acute cerebral congestion, with great mental excitement, the sheep rushing about and butting into things; following is a stage characterized by irregularity of movement, violent spasms, and falling fits; in most cases collapse and death occur within half-an-hour to an hour and a half; the pulse is strong and regular; the convulsions resemble to some extent those caused by strychnine; the excretion of the kidneys is much increased and sometimes bloody. In post-mortem examination the kidneys are found affected, the lungs slightly congested, the cerebral membranes in all cases congested, and in violent cases small blood vessels are ruptured in different parts of the body.
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“Java” Beans (Phaseolus lunatus). Though not native to Great Britain, the so-called Java Beans have been imported in considerable quantities for stock feeding, and in the past nine years have caused the death of a large number of animals. For example, in March, 1906, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries published an account of the poisoning of animals by these beans at eight centres; at six of the centres 133 cattle were involved and 43 died. The beans are of varying origin, and pass under the name of Java beans, Rangoon beans, Burma beans, Lima beans, and Paigya beans. They are considerably different in colour according to origin, the Java beans being pale brown to almost black; Rangoon, Burma or Paigya beans smaller, plumper, and lighter in colour (“red Rangoon beans” are pinkish with small purple splotches, and “white Rangoon beans” are pale cream); and Lima beans are much larger than the last-named and pale cream or white in colour (see Frontispiece).
It has long been known that beans of certain forms of Phaseolus lunatus are poisonous, and the fact is noted by Church (Food Grains of India, 1886), and by Watt (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, 1889–96). The coloured forms, and particularly the wild forms, are the most dangerous, the white types being in general safe for stock feeding. Some forms have a general similarity to butter beans and haricots, and have hence been favourably regarded by farmers, but it is a sound plan to purchase under a guarantee beans with such names as those given.
Toxic Principle. It was shown in 1903 (Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. 72) that the seeds of P. lunatus, uncultivated in Mauritius, contained a cyanogenetic glucoside, Phaseolunatin (C10H17O6N). This glucoside, under favourable conditions, such as are present when the beans are moist, masticated and ingested at the temperature of the animal body, gives rise to prussic acid, which is the direct cause of poisoning. The seeds of the wild forms yield, like bitter almond seeds, considerable quantities of prussic acid, while the cultivated forms resemble sweet almonds in yielding only traces of the acid, or none at all. Determinations of the yield of prussic acid by various investigators show percentages of from 0·027 to 0·137 in Java beans, and 0·004 to 0·02 in Burma beans. The largest proportion therefore occurs in the coloured beans, while the white forms contain much less or none at all, and may be generally regarded as safe for stock.
Symptoms.—The symptoms given by Damman and Behrens (Veterinary Journal, 1906) were vertigo, tympany, and falling, with death in most cases. Mosselmann (Vet. Jour., 1908) observed the symptoms due to the ingestion of a small quantity of the beans by six head of cattle. They were: great excitement, salivation, swelling, slight diarrhœa, quick pulse and respiration, muscular spasms, and paralysis of the hind quarters in one instance; all recovered rapidly.
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