4, 16, 20, 21, 42, 57, 63, 69, 82, 93, 128, 161, 166, 170, 190, 203, 213.
=“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_ (C_{ 10}H_{ 17}O_{ 6}N). 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.