444 On Ergot. 



had been exerting its baneful influence on man and animals 

 without being- suspected. Through its agency the inhabitants 

 of whole districts in France had been visited with intermittent 

 attacks of gangrenous diseases ; and England, as Professor 

 Henslow has shown in the pages of this Journal (vol. ii. 

 pp. 14—19), has records of similar though not so extensive 

 calamities. Yet many years have not elapsed since these and 

 other evils have been traced to their true source, — the consump- 

 tion of ergotted corn as food. 



The remarkable action of ergot on the gravid uterus is well 

 known, and has caused it to be used for many years as a powerful 

 aid in cases of difficult or prolonged parturition. It has been 

 more recently determined that its power of causing muscular 

 contraction extends to all unstriped or involuntary muscular fibre, 

 and it has consequently been applied in treating certain maladies 

 connected with the intestinal canal and the ai'teries, because these 

 organs, like the gravid uterus, are chiefly composed of this kind 

 of muscular tissue. 



This Journal, and other periodicals devoted to agricultural 

 subjects, contain frequent narratives of the injuries to stock 

 resulting from the occurrence of ergot in grass crops. Mr. H. 

 Tanner records the loss to one breeder of cattle in Shropshire of 

 1200/. in three years fi-om this cause ('Journal,' vol. xix. p. 40). 

 Recent losses, especially in the casting of foals by valuable brood 

 mares, having again drawn attention to the matter, I propose to 

 set down Avhat is known regarding this dangerous production. 

 This is the more necessary, because the views of the latest writers 

 in this Journal on this subject were published before the very 

 important obsei'vations of Tulasne were known. This eminent 

 fungologist has fully traced the history and development of ergot, 

 and has finally set at rest the many doubts entertained as to its 

 true nature. 



Like all diseases which result from the attacks of fungi, the 

 appearance of ergot is mysterious and more or less inexplicable. 

 Atmospheric conditions, without doubt, greatly influence the 

 development of such plants. Moisture is required for the growth 

 of the minute spores of fungi, which at all times abound in the 

 air: a moist and warm atmosphere invariably brings in all 

 suitable localities a large crop of these minute epiphytic or para- 

 sitic fungi. Such conditions, it is well known, greatly favour 

 the production and development of the potato fungus. Ergot 

 also is most abundant in wet seasons ; and in fields where it is 

 seen, it has been found in the greatest abundance in those parts 

 which are low or undrained. Such physical conditions are, 

 however, not present in every instance of the rapid progress of 



