110 ON THE MEDICINAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL 



Common Ergot. 



" Difi'used throughout 

 the whole of Great 

 Britain." W. S. A. 



Spermoedia clavus, D. C. Fr. 



Si)liacelia segetum^ Kl., Fung. Germ. 



^^ jSecale comutum^^ of Pharm. 



Acimda elavus, Lond. Pharm. 



"Produced within the seeds of various gramina, as secale, 

 agrostis, dact^dis, festuca, elymus," etc. 



Not less celebrated on account of the dreadful diseases which 

 it produces, when abounding among corn, than for its invaluable 

 uses as a medicine, arising from its extraordinary specific action 

 on the uterus. It apjDears to be only a diseased state of the 

 grain, and has scarcely a sufficient claim to be admitted amongst 

 fungi as a distinct genus. The external coat is subfarinaceous. 

 Crypt. Eng. 



Much discussion has arisen as to whether ergot is a morbid 

 growth, a parasitic fungus, or the seed perverted in its nature by 

 a fungus. De Candolle believed it to be the second ; and M. Le 

 Veille, in a Mem. published in the Ann. Linn. Soc, Paris, 1826, 

 concurred in the third opinion respecting it. Mr. Quekett, of 

 London, has investigated the subject with much care ; and he 

 confirms the general view of the nature of ergot entertained by 

 M. Le Yeille, but he is led to a difii'erent conclusion as to the 

 character of the parasitic plant. He believes that the genns of 

 the fungus {Ergotcetia abortifaciens) emit their filaments through 

 the tissue of the ergot, when young and tender, and that, as this 

 increases, it is made up partly of the diseased structure of the 

 grain, and partly of the fungous matter. Tliis microscopic fun- 

 gus is found in various other parts of the plant ; and it is asserted 

 that the sporidia, or white dust, upon the surface of ergot, if 

 applied to the seeds of certain graminace?e before germination, 

 or sprinkled in the soil at the roots of the plants after they have 

 begun to grow, will give rise to ergotized fruit (see Am. Journ. 

 Pharm. xi. 116, 237 ; Med. Exam. N. S. i. 62 ; U. S. Disp. 313 ; 

 see besides. Smith's Inquisitio in Secale Cornutum. Commen- 

 tatio prgemio, &c. Annalizcd in Annalen der Pharm. i. 129; 

 also Bauer, in Linn. Trans., 1810, xxxiii. 153; Wright, in Edinb. 

 Med. and Surg. Journ. lii. 306). It is stated that the substance 

 is mucli more energetic when collected before than after harvest. 

 It should not be collected until some days after it has begun to 

 form; as according to M. Bonjean, if gathered on the first day 

 of its formation, it does not possess the poisonous properties 



