THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 75 



Although Claviceps purpurea alone is official, and then only when grown 

 on the rye, there arc a number of other species growing on various host- 

 plants. Claviceps microcephaly is common on species of Scirpus and 

 Claviceps nigricans on a. sedge, Heleocharis. On corn a peculiar fungus, the 

 corn smiri (Ustilago maydis) is found. Although it was formerly held that 

 The ustilagos had no relation to the asconrycetes, Brefeld 2 has reoentl) 

 shown that Ustilaginoidea oryzea and U. setariae, occurring on rice and 

 species of Sctaria. arc developmental stages of an ascomycetous fungus re- 

 lated to ( lavieeps. 



AX V.TOMV AMi 1! [STOLOGY; 



The general characters of ergot are too well known to require a detailed 

 ■description. The grains should be somewhat moist and purplish-black ex- 

 ternally; inside they are whitish, with irregular purplish lines. The fracture 

 is short, and not very sharp. The odor and taste are disagreeable and oily 

 in character. 



Microscopically, ergot lias but few characters. On transverse section 

 the periphery shows a false parenchymatic sheath, deeply stained, the cells 

 •of which are somewhat square, and merge gradually into the irregular in- 

 terwoven mass of thread-like cells which make up the body of the Fungus. 

 Numerous globules of oil are seen in and around the meshes of the my- 

 celium. An hour's application ol Schweizer's reagent permits one to tease 

 the tissue apart, when its true interlacing, thread-like character is made 

 more conspicuous. The cellulose is insoluble in this reagent, a characteris- 

 tic of fungus cellulose. 



CHEMISTltY. 



One of the most interesting and yet at the same time unsatisfactory 

 > hapters in the history of ergot is that on its chemistry. It is a record, one 

 might say, of the disputes of the different pharmacological schools. 



Vauquelin (1817) was one of the first investigators, and since his day 

 a great number of constituents have been described. As it would not be 

 profitable to review every step of the work, only the more important in- 

 vestigations will be noted. 



The constituents about which there has been little dispute are as fol- 

 lows: 



(1.) Salts. — Mainly phosphates of calcium, potassium and magnesium, 

 with traces of manganese; from 3 to I per cent. 



(2.) Carbohydrates.— Glucose, trehalose, mannit and mieose; the exact 

 equivalents of which are not yet definitely determined (Wiirtze claiming 

 1 hat trehalose is the same as mieose). 



SBotanische Centralhalle, rSo6, p. 97. 



