354 POISONOUS AND EDIBLE FUNGI 



ERGOT AND ERGOTISM 



The name ergot, which is properly applied to the sclerotial stage 

 of Claviceps purpurea, is derived from the old French argot and 

 refers to the resemblance of the sclerotium to a cock's spur. 

 Er^ot, when ingested bv man and various animals, has long been 

 known to be poisonous, causing a disease known as ergotism. 

 Both the disease and its cause have come to be well known and 

 have attracted the attention of a large number of investigators. 

 Two monographic treatises on this subject, one by AtanasofT 

 (1920) and the other by Barger (1931), are especially note- 

 worthy. That bv AtanasofT is concerned primarily with matters 

 of plant-pathological and mycological interest, whereas that by 

 Barger deals primarily with ergotism. Barger's interests were 

 centered on this problem for more than 20 years, and his compre- 

 hensive report, although intended primarily for the student and 

 the practitioner of medicine, is also of wide general usefulness. 



Historical account. It becomes apparent from the account 

 by Barker (1931) that the antiquity of ergotism cannot be estab- 

 lished with certainty. There is little likelihood that the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans knew this disease, as is maintained by Robert 

 [Barger (1931), pp. 40-42]. Certain diseases mentioned by Hip- 

 pocrates and Galen and interpreted by Robert and others to be 

 ergotism seem to have been some other disorder. It seems highly 

 probable that an outbreak of ergotism was first chronicled by 

 some unknown writer in the Annates Xanthensis in a.d. 857. 

 Translated, his statement is: "A great plague of swollen blisters 

 consumed the people by a loathesome rot, so that their limbs were 

 loosened and fell off before death." Confusion also exists regard- 

 ing the cause of the epidemics called "holy fire" {ignis sacer) that 

 occurred throughout the succeeding period of about 800 years. 

 The gangrenous condition of limbs, resulting in death or the loss 

 of hands and feet, undoubtedly was ergotism, although anthrax, 

 erysipelas, scurvy, and plague may have accounted for a portion 

 of the mortality. 



The modern history of ergotism begins with an account by 

 Dodart [Barger (1931), pp. 59-60] of an epidemic in the Sologne 

 district of France in 1676. In 1777, in this same district, about 

 8000 persons are said to have succumbed from ergotism. In 1770 



