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can be and often is an impoverishment of life, a progressive loss of the qualities that we identify with humanness and a progressive weakening of mental and physical sanity."16 For all of these reasons I find myself in complete disagreement with Jackson when he says, in justification of pragmatic, economically oriented man, that with respect to the environment, "what the spectator wants or does not want [in the way or aesthetics] is of small account,"17 for, unlike Jackson, I believe that the most necessary ingredient for the creation of a desirable future environment is a vision of what we think that environment ought to be.

The Grass Pea: Distribution, Diet, and Disease

ROBERT D. MITCHELL9

of man's domestication and use of plants is the assimilation of certain toxin-producing plants into his agricultural and dietary patterns. Most naturally toxic or unpalatable plants which have become widely accepted food species, such as cassava and certain species of yams and mustards, have been so modified by man that any unpleasant elements have been removed or rendered inoperative prior to consumption. Others have been only slightly modified or are essentially unchanged. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by a relatively little known toxic plant, grass pea or chickling vetch (Lathijrus sativus), in the agricultural and food patterns of the Old World. An annual leguminous plant similar in appearance to the common field pea, and probably native to southwest Asia, grass pea is a minor plant in man's culinary arsenal. It has been widely used as a fodder crop. In India and West Pakistan it attains the status of a minor food crop under the commercial name of khesari. Both of these countries aie also subject to an endemic paralytic disease known as lathyrism, which has long been attributed to the grass pea.
ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION

O N E OF THE MORE INTRIGUING aspects

Members of the genus Lathyrus occur on all continents except Australasia and Antarctica. The Mediterranean zone of Europe,
* Dr. Mitchell was an Assistant Professor of Geography at San Fernando Valley State College when a paper on which this article is based was read at t h e 32nd annual meeting of the Association. He is now on the faculty of the Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742. The author wishes to thank Frederick J. Simoons for originally introducing him to the mysteries of grass pea, and Wallace St. Clair for drawing the final illustrations.
29

16 R. Dubos, "C. F. Letter," (Conservation Foundation, Washington, D.C., Feb. 24,1969), p. 11. 17 J. B. Jackson, "Notes and Comments," Landscape, Vol. 13, No. 2 (196364), p. 2.

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north Africa, and southwest Asia has the greatest profession of individual species, seventy-six. This zone holds the key to the origins and subsequent diffusion of many species of the genus.1 Lathyrus sativus is an Old World species which has also been used as an experimental forage crop in the New World. Despite numerous listings of the areas where this species is found, only Muratova has attempted to map its distribution.2 My research indicates a wider distribution for the plant than she was aware of, particularly in southern Asia and Africa (Figure 1). As a cultivated crop and as a naturalized weed, grass pea occurs from the Azores and Canary Islands eastward to the lower central Brahmaputra Valley in Assam. It has been identified as a forage plant or as a weed as far north as the outskirts of Paris and southern Germany.3 In the Soviet Union it seems to be confined to the Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Turkestan. In Africa it grows along the north coast, in the Nile Valley, and in limited areas in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and South Africa. The adaptability of the species to a wide variety of physical conditions is evident in its vertical distribution. In the delta plains of East Pakistan it is cultivated at a few feet above sea level, and it has been observed above 9,000 feet in southeastern Kashmir.4
1 Harold A. Senn, "Experimental Data for a Revision of the Genus Lathyrus," American Journal of Botany, Vol. 25 (1938), pp. 68-69. For a detailed discussion of the botanical characteristics of grass pea, see Gabrielle H. C. Howard and K.S.A.R. Khan, 'The Indian Types of Lathyrus Sativus L.," Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, Botanical Series, VoL 15, No. 2 (1928), pp. 47-77. 2 V. S. Muratova, "Areas of the geographical distribution of the most important representatives of the genus Lathyrus L. which are of agricultural value" (In Russian with English summary), Bulletin of Applied Botany, Genetics and Plant-Breeding, Vol. 16 ( 1926), p. 95. 3 More than one hundred separate sources were consulted in reconstructing the plant's distribution. For the limits mentioned, see W. Trelease, Botanical Observations on the Azores, St. Louis, 1897, p . 109; H. Knoche, Die Kanarische Inseln (Strassburg, 1923), pp. 175 and 226; U. N. Kanjila!, P. C. Kanjilal, and A. Das, Flora of Assam, Vol. 2, Calcutta, 1938, p. 24; E. Cosson and G. de Saint-Pierre, Flore des Environs de Paris, Paris, 1861, p. 182; and Gustav Hegi, illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa, Vol. 4 (Munich, 1924), pp. 16041606. * Abdul Alim, "Fodder Plant Resources of East Pakistan," Agriculture Pakistan, Vol. 10 (1959), pp. 351-357, and R. R. Stewart, ' T h e Flora of Ladak, Western Tibet," Contributions from the Department of Botany, Columbia Universty, No. 281,1916-17, p. 637.

INDIAN OCEAN ATLANTIC OCEAN

1500 I MILES

Figure 1. Maximum distribution of the grass pea as a food and fodder crop. (Adapted from V. S. Muratova)

There is sufficient archaeological evidence to suggest that the grass pea is a relatively old cultivated plant closely associated with the origins and diffusion of Old World agriculture. The earliest reference is for the western foothills of the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. At the Deh Luran excavation site, grass peas were found in association with wheat, barley, lentils, and flax in a level which dated between 4,000 and 5,200 B.C.5 The plant was found in the pyramid
Frank Hole, K. Flannery, and J. Neely, "Early Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in Deh Luran, Iran," Current Anthropology, Vol. 6 (1965), pp. 105106.
8

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complexes of the lower Nile Valley, dated between 2,300 and 2,700 B. C , and at the excavations at Navdatoli on the northwestern Deccan in India, where it was eaten or cultivated between 1,500 and 2,000 B. C.6 There appears to be no Hebrew name for the plant, but it does occur in ancient Sanskrit under the name triputa meaning "threefold" or "angular," possibly referring to the flowers or the seeds.7 A small-seeded variety was found at Aggtelek, a late Neolithic site in Hungary, and the plant was used as a fodder crop in ancient Greece and Rome.8 Opinions vary widely on the possible hearth area. Linnaeus believed it to be native to southern Europe, de Candolle vaguely suggested the region from the Caucasus to the north of India, and Vavilov originally included it in his Afghanistan-northwest India and Ethiopia centers. However, the most recent archaeological evidence points to southwest Asia and particularly to the western foothill steppe zone of the Zagros Mountains as the probable origin of the plant as a crop collected and eventually cultivated by man (Figure 2). e This region which today receives an average annual precipitation of 10 to 15 inches with a distinct winter maximum was probably much wetter during the early Neolithic period some 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.10 The early association of Lathyrus sativus with the wild ancestors of wheat and barley would seem to be an additional clue to the domestication of the plant. One of the most striking features about the development of Old World seed agriculture is the close relationship between grain crops and legumes. Many of the latter seem
G Oakes Ames, Economic Annuals and Human Cultures, Cambridge, Mass., 1939, pp. 51-52, and Robert J. Braidwood and G. R. Willey (eds.), Course's Toward Urban Life (Chicago, 1962), p. 75. 7 Suruta, Sushruta Samhita, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies, Vol. 30 (Varanasi, India, 1963), p. 474. 8 F. Pax, Grundzge der Pflanzenverbreitung in den Karpathen, Leipzig, 1898, 240, and H. O. Lenz, Botanik der Alten Griechen und Rmer (Gotha 1859), pp. 729-730. 9 Hole, Flannery, and Neely, op. cit., pp. 105-106. See also Robert J. Braidwood, "Near Eastern Prehistory," Science, Vol. 127 (1958), p. 1426. 10 Karl W. Butzer, Environment and Archaeology, Chicago, 1964, pp. 425-426, and H. E. Wright, "Natural Environment of Early Food Production North of Mesopotamia," Science, Vol. 161 (1968), pp. 334-339.

>

^y>
! /

t
a
m

/'

J/
/ A.

/
rr\ Maximum IM distribution

a ^* i

Original center Diffusion B.C.

( \ \

y / T/ )/ / U
0

_.> Diffusion 0-1800 A.D. _..^ Diffusion sinoe 1800 1500 !

1
MILES

Figure 2. Origins and diffusion of the grass pea.

to have been brought into cultivation as secondary domesticants, i.e., they were originally found as weeds in cultivated wheat or barley fields. On the other hand, in some areas of southwest Asia it is possible that legumes were primary domesticants, having been selected and brought into cultivation as forage plants by groups in the process of domesticating herd animals. Assuming that the origin of the plant as a cultivated crop was in the Zagros foothills, it would have been easier for it to spread west to the Mediterranean zone with its winter rains than to move

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east to northern India or south to the Ethiopian plateau with thencool, dry winters. Diffusion from the hearth area would have involved further selection and hybridization to adapt it to differing climatic regimes. It seems doubtful that grass pea was native to Ethiopia. It is cultivated widely throughout the Ethiopian plateau between 5,000 and 7,500 feet, but it has not diffused to other parts of the East African highlands.11 More likely, the plant was brought with wheat and barely from southwest Asia via the Nile Valley or the Red Sea.12 The chronology and diffusion patterns of the grass pea are difficult to trace because of the etymological confusion surrounding its identification. There are only slight differences between the major genera of the Leguminosae. Common field pea (Pisum arvense), chick pea (Cicer arietinum), sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), and common vetch or tare (Vicia sativa) are familiar members of the family. Yet the terms pea, vetch, and tare are broad and ill-defined, and the linguistic background to their taxonomy is equally confusing. Table 1 is a partial list of colloquial names that have been used for grass pea. Some of these provide clues to the plant's diffusion. The large number of names in India, the area of its greatest signifiTable 1. SELECTED COLLOQUIAL NAMES FOR THE CRASS PEA

Country Name India Khesari (commercial) Kashmir Garash Punjab Mattar, matra Uttar Pradesh Latri, teora Sind Mattar Gujarat Bajri, watana Madhya Pradesh Lalch, teora, matra Lang Bombay
11

Country Spain Portugal Britain Ethiopia Tanzania South Africa

Name Chcharo, garbanzo juda Chicharos-communs Grass pea, chickling vetch, Spanish lentil Guaya, sebbere Bajri Watana

canee, is not surprising. The use of Gujrati names in Tanzania and South Africa indicates the origin of the plant's use among the recent Indian populations of these two countries (Figure 2). The variety of interpretations found in the Iberian Peninsula illustrates the linguistic confusion and some of the frustrations associated with the diffusion of grass pea. In Portuguese the word chcharos has been used very loosely, not only for grass pea but also for lddney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), chick pea (Cicer arietinum), and blue or purple vetch (Vicia atropurprea).13 Chcharo is the general Spanish name for the plant, but the word is more commonly employed for garden pea (Pisum. sativum). Historically, the term chcharo has been used synonymously in Spain with juda ( kidney bean ) which through the Christian-Moor linguistic complex became associated with garbanzo.1* And the garbanzo "bean" (really the chick pea) has become a common American salad ingredient. It has been widely assumed by European botanists, based on the literature of the great sixteenth-century herbalists, that the Alps provided a distinct barrier to the northward diffusion of grass pea from the Mediterranean and that it did not reach central and northwestern Europe before the sixteenth century. In view of the many cultural connections between northern and southern Europe dating back at least to the Roman conquests, this seems doubtful. The plant could have reached north of the Alps via the Danube Valley or southern France or by sea long before the sixteenth century. Although concrete evidence is lacking, there is no reason why it could not have been carried north by the Romans prior to the fifth century. Maritime connections also may have allowed the seeds to reach northern Europe from the Mediterranean.15
AGRICULTURAL AND DIETARY SIGNIFICANCE

Frederick J. Simoons, Northwest Ethiopia: Peoples and Economy (Madison, Wisconsin, 1960), p. 110; Eike Haberland, Galla Sd-thiopiens (Stuttgart, 1963), p. 533; A. V. Bogdan, "Herbage Plants at the Grassland Research Station, Kitale, Kenya," East African Agricultural Journal, Vol. 20 (1955), p. 162; and J. D. Tothill (ed.), Agriculture in Uganda (London, 1940), p. 479. 12 Compare I. H. Burkhill, "Habits of Man and the Origins of the Cultivated Plants of the Old World," Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Vol. 164 (1951-52), 16-17, and 22, and David R. Harris, "New Light on Plant Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture: A Review," Geographical Review, Vol. 57 (1967), pp. 97-100.

Throughout the areas of its distribution, grass pea has been used principally as fodder for livestock. In periods of famine or poor
M. R. D'Oliveira Feijo, Elucidario Fitolgico, Vol. 1 (Lisbon, 1960), p . 242. Chcharo is derived from the vulgar Latin, Ciceru, meaning vetchling. 14 See Juan Coraminas, Diccionario Crtico Etimolgico de la Lengua Castellana, four vols, (especially vols. 1 and 2) (Madrid, 1954). 15 John Parkinson, The Theater of fiantes (London, 1640), pp. 10641066.
13

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Table 2. NUTRITIVE VALUE OF SELECTED FOODSTUFFS

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Content per 100 grams Khesari dhal Composition Moisture Protein Fat Mineral Fiber Other carbohydrates Selected nutrients Calcium Magnesium Oxalic acid Phosphorus Iron grams 10.0 28.2 0.6 2.3 2.3 56.6 High Medium Very high Low Medium grams 13.7 6.8 0.5 0.6 0.2 78.2 Low Low Low Medium Medium grams 12.8 11.8 1.5 1.5 1.2 71.2 Medium High Low High Medium Rice, raw milled Whole wheat Bengal gram dhal grams 9.9 20.8 5.6 2.7 1.2 59.8 Medium High Low Medium Medium Dried peas grams 16.0 19.7 1.1 2.2 4.5 56.5 High High Low Medium High

Grass pea is sown in October or November and grows during the cool season. It does best in loamy or clayey soils and shows a remarkable tolerance of both dry and waterlogged soil conditions. It has been a popular crop with the Indian farmer, partly because it requires very little land preparation before sowing. At most the land may be ploughed twice or three times. Seeds aie usually broadcast at rates of 30 to 35 pounds per acre. Once in the ground, the crop receives little or no attention. There is no after-tillage or handweeding. Moreover, the plant's disease susceptibility is low, and in areas where the pea-weevil is present its cultivation is preferred to that of the commonfieldpea. The adaptability of the plant has been another major reason for its widespread use in the past. In wheat-growing areas of the upper Ganges and Indus valleys, it is generally sown with wheat, barley, and lentils. In paddy rice areas of the lower Ganges and the northeastern peninsula, it is sown just before or just after the rice harvest. Around Calcutta in the jute-growing areas it has recently been used in experiments with double-crop jute and rice as a leguminous addition.17 Harvesting occurs in March. The plants aie generally cut close to the ground before they are fully ripe. They are moved to the threshing floor and stacked for a week until dry, after which they are threshed either with sticks or by bullocks and then cleaned. Grass pea is seldom a uniform crop when harvested. It is usually contaminated with a variety of weeds. Yields vary widely from district to district, usually ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of fodder per acre. The leaves, stalks, and tough-skinned seeds are fed to cattle. The plant is sometimes ploughed under as a nitrogenous crop in paddy fields, but the practice is not very widespread.

harvests, it has been eaten by the poorer classes in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the seeds being ground into flour or meal. Although still used as a fodder crop outside of South Asia, especially in the Mediterranean zone and in eastern Africa, its importance has gradually diminished during the last three decades. The major areas of grass pea cultivation and use today are in India and Pakistan. In East Pakistan it remains an important fodder crop; the leaves especially are fed to cattle. In India and West Pakistan it attains additional significance as a human food (Table 2). Compared with the numerous varieties of gram (chick pea), which comprise about 40 percent of the total annual acreage under pulses in India, the grass pea comprises only 9 to 10 percent. It is confined largely to northern and central India, the main areas of pulse production and consumption, and to the Indus Valley. Unt recently grass pea was the leading leguminous crop in the state of Bihar, occupying one-third of the total pulse acreage, and in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh it took up more than one-fifth of the acreage under pulses.16 During the mid-1950's its cultivated acreage in India was approximately 1.8 million acres. Delhi, 1957), p. 378.

17 C. P. Dutt and B. M. Pugh, Farm Science and Crop Production in India, Part 2, Allahabad, 1947, 212; L. S. S. Kumar, et al., Agriculture in India, Vol. 2 (Bombay, 1963), pp. 49-50; M. I. Siddiqui, "Land Utilisation in Bholahat, Jadunagar, and Gilhabari: A Study in Rural Landuse," Oriental Geographer, Vol. 8 (1964), p. 54; R. L. and K. N. Singh, "Eastern Uttar Pradesh," in R. L. Singh (ed.), India: Regional Studies (Calcutta, 1968), p. 88; and Whyte, op. 10 Robert O. Whyte, The Grassland and Fodder Resources of India, (Newcit., pp. 294-299.

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Grass pea or khesari is one of the cheapest, least labor-consuming, and most resistant of the Indian pulses. Because of longaccustomed use by local farmers, its retention as a food crop in many areas is undoubtedly due to familiarity and cultural preference particularly in those areas where lathyrism has been prominent. The plants nutritive value compares favorably with some of the better known Indian foodstuffs (Table 2). It has a relatively high protein content and caloric value, but it is deficient in fat and vitamins A and C. It also shows an inordinately high concentration of oxalic acid, which is one of the factors contributing to lathyrism. Grass pea is used in food preparations in a variety of ways. In its most common form it is eaten as khesari dhal (dal). The seeds, with their outer skins removed, are cooked with other legumes to form a kind of split-pea dish which is served with bread. Dhal is also used as a base for a soup or gruel, mahera, which is composed of dhal, water or buttermilk, and spices. Seeds are also used to make a bread flour. They are parched before being crushed and ground, then the skins are separated and discardeda loss of 25 percent in weight. The flour is baked into bread cakes, chappatis, and eaten with cooked vegetables or chutney.18 Among Indians in Tanzania and South Africa the seeds are also roasted and eaten like peanuts.19
LATHYRISM

Many of the crippled beggars in cities of northern India are former rural dwellers suffering from the chronic cerebro-spinal disease of the nervous system known as lathyrism. The main feature of the disease is a degree of motor paralysis in the lower limbs. The development of a characteristic gait has been noted, although few cases have been observed completely from the onset of the disease. The first symptoms are usually cramps and stiffness in the calf
18 For some descriptions of diet, see Sir George Watt, The Commercial Products of India (London, 1908), p. 705; C. V. Wiser, "The Foods of a Hindu Village of North India," Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 4 (1955), pp. 333-334; and T. C. McCombie Young, "A Field Study of Lathyrism," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 15 (1927-28), p. 458. 19 J. M. Watt and M. G. Breyer-Brandwijk, The Medical and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa, Edinburgh, 1962, p. 615, and Report by British Colonial Office on Tanganyika Territory for 1927 (London, 1928), p. 31.

muscles, a slight bending of the knee, and some difficulty in running. Within two to three weeks a scissor-like gait develops in which the heels seldom touch the ground; most of the weight is placed on the ball of the foot. In more serious cases, victims are forced to use walking sticks. In most advanced stages, the entire lower limbs become completely paralyzed, and victims can only crawl in a sitting position.20 There is rarely any sensory paralysis of the legs; mental faculties, speech, and cranial nerves are never involved; and signs of vitamin deficiency are not common. Indeed, most of the victims who were examined did not seem to have been badly nourished at all. Although the word "lathyrism" was first used in the 1870's, the disease dates back at least to Hippocrates in the fourth century B. C. Early Indian medical writings contain references to a disease called "kalaya khanji" with symptoms closely resembling if not completely identical with those produced by khesari.21 With the adoption of grass pea as a fodder crop in northern Europe, written reports of lathyrism among livestock, especially horses, began to turn up from the seventeenth century on. On occasion, local authorities prohibited the use of various species of Lathyrus including L. sativus, not only for horse feed but also as ingredients in bread. During the nineteenth century, reports of lathyrism in man and animals increased in Europe and the Middle East. In 1820 the Paris Veterinary School advised French farmers not to feed grass pea to horses for fear of paralysis and death. In a celebrated court case in England in 1894, the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company charged an importing company with selling them Indian peas or "mutters" (grass peas from Punjab and Sind). One hundred and
The best general discussions of the nature and history of the disease are Ralph Stockman, "Lathyrism," Edinburgh Medical Journal, Vol. 19 (1917), pp. 277-296; R. Ghoshal, "Lathyrism," Calcutta Medical Journal, Vol. 51 (1954), pp. 191-204; and D. N. Sharma, "Lathyrism: The Old and New Concepts," Journal of the Indian Medical Association, Vol. 36 (1961), pp. 299-304. Photographs illustrating various stages of the disease are contained in T. C. McCombie Young, "A Field Study of Lathyrism," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 15 (1927-28), plates 43-46; and D. M Roy, "A Note on Field Investigation of an Outbreak of Lathyrism in Madhya Pradesh in 1945," Indian Medical Gazette, Vol. 86 (1951), plate XVI. 21 Ghoshal, op. cit., p. 191, and Sharma, op. cit., p. 299.
20

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twenty-seven horses were said to have become ill as a result and some died.22 During the same century, lathyrism in man was reported in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, North Africa, Ethiopia, and Iran. In the twentieth century, reports were received of isolated instances of human lathyrism in Spain, the Soviet Union, and Syria, as well as from India and Pakistan. The first detailed written account of the disease in South Asia dates from the 1830's in the central provinces of India. Since that time, frequent outbreaks of human lathyrism have occurred in the Indus Valley, Kashmir, and at least ten of the central and northern provinces of India (Figure 3). The area of endemic lathyrism seems to be in the central Ganges Valley areas of Uttar Pradesh and northern Bihar and in the plateau province of Madhya Pradesh." Although grass pea is also cultivated in Assam and Maharashtra provinces, few human cases of the disease have been reported from these areas, mainly because the pulse is seldom eaten. The virtual absence of reports from Orissa has been attributed to heavy dependence upon rice as the staple food and the relative unimportance of grass pea. In the adjacent rice province of West Bengal, where reports of lathyrism had also been rare, a serious outbreak of the disease occurred in 1959-60. Eighty-five cases were reported among Bengalese cultivators from twenty-two villages where lathyrism had hitherto been unknown.24 Local cultivators had grown rice, but they had recently begun to incorporate jute into their crop patterns as well which, according to them, caused a reduction in rice yields. Thus, to compensate for the declining amounts of available rice, they had reverted to the cultivation of grass pea because it was so easy to cultivate and produced higher yields than other familiar pulses.25
^ S h a r m a , op. cit., p . 300. 23 H . Stott, "Distribution of L a t h y r i s m in U n i t e d Provinces a n d its Caase . . .," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 1 8 ( 1 9 3 0 ) , p p . 5 1 - 5 5 . 24 T . K. S a h a e t al., "Lathyrism in a rural area of W e s t B e n g a l , " Bulletin

WEST PAKISTAN

EAST PAKISTAN Kashmir Punjab Rajasthan Gujarat Maharashtra Mysore Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Orissa Bihar West Bengal Assam

Other areas of cultivated khesari 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

MILES

Figure 3. Lathyrism in South Asia. (Compiled from several sources)

of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Vol. 8 (1960), pp. 98-99; and R. N. Chaudhuri et al., "Lathvrism: further observations," ibid., Vol. 11 (1963), pp. 89-91. 25 Cases of a disease similar to lathyrism but with no evidence of Lathyrus consumption have been reported in Madras province. See R. L. H. Minchin, "Primary Lateral Sclerosis of South India: Lathyrism without Lathyrus," British Medical Journal, Vol. 1 for 1940, pp. 253-255.

Most field researchers who have studied human lathyrism have attributed it to some form of poisoning, to amino acid and vitamin deficiencies, or to a combination of both. The increasing number of medical reports of lathyrism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to many experiments on animals to study the causes of the disease in more detail, but the etiology of human lathyrism was made more complicated by conflicting results obtained from inducing the disease in animals by means of various combinations of pulses. One of the major difficulties was the fact that khesari dhal itself contains a variety of other pulses in addition to grass pea. Field researchers have identified three species of Lathyrus common in khesari dhal which seem to produce symptoms of lathyrism in man-L. sativus, flat-podded vetch (L. cicero), and Spanish vetch-

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rat, chicken, duck, frog, and pig. 28 H. Selye, "Lathyrism," Review of Canadian Biology, Vol. 1 6 (1957), p . 3. 20 Indian Council of Medical Research, Annual Report 1962-1963, p . 39. For an opinion claiming a nontoxic character for grass pea, see M. S. Sastry et al., "Studies on Lathyrus Sativus: Non-Toxic Character of Lathyrus Sativus Seeds and Their Nutritive Value," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 51 (1963), pp. 468-475.

grass pea produce substantially different physiological effects in man and animals, medical researchers have probed further into the poisonous factors involved. At least two other toxic substances have been isolated, although neither their structural features nor their precise neurotoxic actions have yet been identified.30 Although no statistics are available on individuals affected by lathyrism, the number is probably about five million. Detailed field studies in India from the late 1920's until the most recent outbreaks in Madhya Pradesh in 1966-67 revealed some interesting demographic and cultural aspects of the disease.31 The ages of victims ranged from four to sixty-five years, with the greatest incidence between ten and thirty. Young males are most susceptible; females are only occasionally affected. The suggestion that men eat more khesari because they work longer and harder in the fields seems untenable in view of reports that in many affected areas in northern India women seem to work equally as hard in agricultural pursuits. Most victims are small cultivators and landless laborersindividuals from the poorest strata of rural society. This is mainly because grass pea is inexpensive and can be easily cultivated. In northern India the lugwa system of employment, a type of share-cropping in which laborers are often paid in seed or other produce rather than in money, has helped to perpetuate the use of the plant in the diet of laboring families. Many victims examined in the area of endemic lathyrism had eaten a monotonous diet, composed largely of khesari dhal and buttermilk, twice a day for as long as three months prior to the onset of the disease. 28 Irvine E. Liener, "Lathyrogens," Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant The grass pea crop is generally consumed within three to four Breeding, Vol. 27 (1967), pp. 34-35. For a long time a weed found in grass months after harvesting, and cases of lathyrism occur most frepeafields,aleta (Vicia sativa), was thought to be the toxic factor. See Howard and Khan, op. cit., p. 53. quently during the summer rainy season in July and August. There 27 is usually at least a month's gap between the commencement of The major exception to this statement is t h e horse which has proven susceptible to the toxic factors in grass pea through paralysis and asphyxiation. khesari consumption and the onset of the disease. During this period The animals which have been most frequently involved in experiments are the
30 V. Nagarajan et al., "Toxic Factors in Lathyrus sativus," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 5 3 (1965), pp. 269-272; V. Nagarajan and C. Gopalan, "Variation in the Neurotoxin /?-(N)-Oxalylaminoaknine Content in Lathyrus sativus samples from Madhya Pradesh," ibid., Vol. 5 6 ( 1 9 6 8 ) , pp. 96-98; and Liener, op. cit., pp. 35-39. 31 For a summary of some of these studies see the Indian Council of Medical Research, Annual Reports (1961-68), Hyderabad and N e w Delhi.

ling (L. clymenum). When these species were fed experimentally to a wide selection of animals, they usually proved to be nontoxic. On the other hand, species of Lathyrus which were not poisonous to man, particularly sweet pea (L. odoratus), perennial sweet pea (L. latifolius), and flat pea (L. sylvestris) did produce some symptoms in animals which broadly resembled human lathyrism.27 As a result of these experiments, two different forms of the disease have become evident. Human lathyrism, or neurolathyrism, involves damage to the cerebro-spinal fluid and to the central nervous system, causing paralysis. Grass pea is intimately associated with this form. Osteolathyrism, produced in animal experiments, involves damage mainly to the bone and connective tissue, causing stunted growth, asphyxiation, and even death. Grass pea is not a major factor in the production of this type of lathyrism.28 About 1960 there was a major breakthroughidentification of the actual toxic factors in grass pea. It was known that some species of Lathyrus, including sativus, had high amino acid potential, but the relationship between this factor and other chemical substances in these species was unclear. Studies with chickens injected with alcoholic extracts of grass pea indicated that there might be a positive connection between one of these amino acids and the high content of oxalic acid in the seeds of the plant.29 This hypothesis has indeed proved correct, and a neurotoxic compound which seems to be responsible for human lathyrism has been identified as BOAA (/?-N-OxaIyIaminoaIanine). However, since only slight structural modifications in the enzymic constituents of different varieties of

44

ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS

32

YEARBOOK

VOLUME 33

1971

45

the body becomes sensitized to the toxic substances in khesari. Lathyrism is most widespread among lower-caste Hindus. Among non-Hindu tribal groups and poorer Moslems, meat products form a much more substantial part of protein consumption that khesari.33 Many local folk-beliefs are held about the causes of the disease. In some affected areas, lathyrism has long been attributed by the natives to the consumption of khesari. For example, in the Gilgit area of Kashmir, local people have insisted that lathyrism was incurable when acquired from crops grown in virgin and unfertilized soil. The plant was supposed to lose its toxic qualities after a few years of cultivation in this kind of soil.3* Roy's field investigations in Madhya Pradesh during the early 1940's uncovered several interesting myths. Local farmers believed that the outer shell was poisonous and if this was removed the khesari would be harmless. Investigations have shown, however, that people who ate shelled seeds have been affected. Boiling rather than shelling was recommended to remove the suspected toxicity.35 Another widespread belief in northern India has been the varying toxicity of grass pea seeds under different forms of soil preparation and cultivation. Reports from Roy and others have indicated cases of a small-seeded, unmottled khesari, known as lakhori, sown in rice fields and believed to yield a harmless seed, and a larger seeded, mottled variety, known as lakh, grown in nearby drier wheat fields and regarded as being a dangerous crop.36 Recent research on these two varieties in Madhya Pradesh has revealed a wide variation in toxic content from area to area, with the higher toxin seeds tending to come from the predominantly wheat zone. On the basis of these
Ghoshal, op. cit., p. 195, a n d Chaudhuri, op. cit., pp. 90-91. See Chaudhuri, op. cit., p p . 89-91; Saha, op. cit., pp. 98-99; Stott, op. cit., p p . 51-55; Young, op. cit., p p . 453-480; S. B. Lai, "Lathyrism in Bihar," Indian Medical Gazette, Vol. 8 4 (1949), pp. 468-472; and S. R. A . Shah, "A Note on some Cases of Lathyrism in a Punjab Village," ibid., Vol. 7 4 (1939), pp. 385-388. 34 Louis H . L. Mackenzie, "Lathyrism in t h e Gilgit Agency," Indian Medical Gazette, Vol. 62 (1927), p. 2 0 1 . 35 Roy, op. cit., pp. 263-265, and his article, "Note on Diet Surveys Carried out in the Central Provinces and Berar," Indian Medical Gazette, Vol. 81 (1946), pp. 546-549. 80 Roy, op. cit., (1951), p. 265; Stockman, op. cit., pp. 279 and 295; and Watt, op. cit., p. 705.
33 22

findings, the possibility of cultivating lower-toxin plants on a much larger scale than in the past is now being pursued.37 Perhaps the most persistent belief associated with lathyrism has been that if the consumption of khesari was stopped within a few days after the beginning of the disease there would be no further harmful effects. This simple assumption has never been medically verified because so few cases have been observed from the initial onset of lathyrism, but significant improvements have been noted in patients who have stopped eating khesari within a few weeks after detection of the disease. However, during famine periods in particular, there is often no alternative to habitual consumption of khesari except starvation. What never seems to have occurred to khesari eaters is the significance of the proportion of khesari in their diets. It has been demonstrated that lathyrism is most likely to occur in areas where grass pea comprises more than 40 percent of the daily diet.38 Attempts at both prevention and cure of the disease were made long before the identification of the toxic substances. Based on the belief that prevention is better than cure, various Indian states since the 1920's have periodically banned the cultivation or sale of various species of Lathyrus. Since 1948 there has been increasing pressure by the Indian government through laws, agricultural education, and health-service propaganda to restrict the cultivation of grass pea in northern India. Effects of the pressure are now being seen through the decreasing significance of the plant in the land-use and dietary patterns of that region.39 Because of the intense cultural conservatism encountered in many rural areas, attempts are also being made to produce less poisonous varieties. Several states have imposed restrictions on the movement of the seeds from areas of production to urban centers. In some dhals, public health agencies have found it difficult to discover the ground
Nagarajan and Gopalan, op. cit., pp. 98-99. Roy, op. cit., ( 1 9 5 1 ) , p p . 264-265, and K. L. Shourie, "An Outbreak of Lathyrism in Central India," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 3 3 (1945), pp. 245-246. 39 Indian Council of Medical Research, "A Review of Nutrition Studies in India," Special Report No. 22 (New Delhi, 1951), p. 9; Whyte, op. cit., p. 378; and Nagarajan and Gopalan, op. cit., pp. 95-99.
38 37

ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS

parts of grass pea seeds, but a method of receny been found based on detecting the

Problems in Tropical Agriculture: A Case Study from Guam

DAVID LEE*

Popular through eLation T d

Roasting the seeds has resulted in a loss the toxic factors. If severely roasted render them inedible. In ild T d prostign.n have
THE ISLAND OF GUAM appears at first glance to meet all of the cliches required of a tropical paradise-blue lagoons, coral-sand beaches, coconut palms bent by the trade winds. An observer, having recently toured the vast plantations of pineapple and sugar cane in Hawaii, might be struck with a sense of the great agricultural potential of the island. Indeed, the list of economically useful plants which can be grown on Guam is long, suggesting that agriculture does, or at least should, provide significant employment for the island's people. The facts show the contrary. Excluding some 38,000 military personnel, the population of Guam is 63,000/ Of these a mere 252 are full-time farmers.2 The amount of land devoted to cultivation is slightly more than one percent of the total area of the island (Figure I). 3 Obviously agriculture is of miniscular significance to the island's economy, but why? In this study, conditions of agriculture on Guam were examined and an attempt was made to analyze agricultural problems on the island. Some of these problems involve the physical landscapethe soils, slope of land, climate, and vegetation. Others are related to land tenure, labor, markets, alternative land uses, and competition from other crop-producing areas.

leather-viLg,
the use of the legs is hoped that fc de-emphasize

^rehabilitaron, it

40 V. Nagarajan and V. S. Mohan, "A Simple and Specific Method for Dtection of Adulteration with Lathvrus sativus," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 55 (1967), pp. 1011-1014.

V. S. Mohan et al., "Simple Practical Procedures for the Removal of Toxic Factors in Lathyrus sativus," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 54 (1966), pp. 410-414, and Nagarajan and Gopalan, op. cit., p. 95. *2 Mohan, op. cit., pp. 410-414. The fact that no occurrences of lathyrism have been reported among the Indian populations of South Africa has been attributed to the consumption of grass pea seeds in the very popular form of roasted nuts. See Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, op. cit., p. 615.

41

* Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of California, Davis 95616. This paper was presented at the meeting of the California Council for Geographic Education at San Diego State College in May 1969. 1 Territory of Guam, Department of Labor and Personnel, Guam Employment Service, Comprehensive Manpower Plan, June 1968. 2 Territory of Guam, Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, Fiscal Year 1968 (July 1968), Table IX. 8 U. S., Congress, House, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Economic Development of the Territory of Guam, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 1966, p. 138.
47

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Titel (MonographieTZeiischrift) Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Corvallis, Or. Oregon State Univ. Pr. 0066-9628

Band Heft

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