Experimental evidence that the active principle of the poisonous plant Thesium lineatum L.f. (Santalaceae) is a bufadienolide.

The toxicity of Thesium lineatum is confirmed in sheep. A toxic crystalline bufadienolide, with the suggested trivial name thesiuside, has been isolated from it. This is the first cardiac glycoside to be isolated from a member of the Santalaceae. The toxin appears to have no cumulative effect and the symptoms of intoxication and pathology in sheep are similar to that expected from acute cardiac glycoside intoxication.

Cat bite transmission of Yersinia pestis infection to man.

The transmission of bubonic plague from the kitten of a domestic cat to a man by means of a bite on a finger is described. The human case was complicated by the development of a secondary meningitis, followed, after specific therapy, by protracted recovery. The kitten showed swollen lymph nodes of the head and neck, frothing at the mouth and nostrils, and signs of an acute infectious disease which had a fatal termination. Yersinia pestis was isolated on about the 8th day from the cerebrospinal fluid of the man. The foster mother of the kitten exhibited signs of spinal and cerebral meningitis but recovered following treatment; her serum contained plague antibody levels of 1:512 and 1:1024 on the 22nd and 34th days respectively after the first evidence of illness. Three litter mates of the kitten also died. The outbreak occurred on a farm in the Graaff-Reinet district of the eastern Cape Province, which is situated about 160 km from the nearest known natural plague focus.