"The full grown Ergot is often overlooked in the barn, among the 

 corn, owing to its resemblance to the dung of mice ; but it is 

 worth especial pains in examining the seed to secure immunity 

 from this parasite " — " Ergot might supply an interesting text 

 from which to exhibit the worthlessness of speculation, as opposed 

 to observation and experiment in dealing with natural science. 

 Eeplacing, as it does, the seed of different grasses, and always 

 attaining, when full grown, a greater size than the normal seed, 

 it was, at first, thought merely to indicate an extra quantity of 

 life and vigour in the particular seeds, which exhausted themselves 

 in the production of the anomalous, horned graio; no special 

 qualities being then associated with these abnormal productions. 

 All along, however, the Ergot has been exerting its baneful in- 

 fluence on men and animals, without being suspected. Through 

 its agency the inhabitants of whole districts in France had been 

 visited with intermittent attacks of gangrenous diseases. England 

 also has records of similar, although not so extensive calamities. 

 In the same Journal it is stated that the loss to one breeder 

 of cattle alone, in Shropshire, was £1,200 in three years owing 

 to this cause. It has been determined that the power of 

 Ergot in causing muscular contraction extends to all unstriped, 

 or involuntary muscular fibre, and it has therefore been applied 

 in treating certain maladies connected with the intestinal canal, 

 and the arteries, because these organs are chiefly composed of 

 this kind of muscular tissue. The comparative immunity of 

 England from disease arising from Ergot is probably owing 

 to the less quantity of rye grown for seed, and used in 

 bread, than is the case in France. But its frequent occurrence 

 on our gra&ses as on the Bromi, Alopecuri and Festuje, expose 

 our cattle to very serious losses. Ergot from the seed of 

 Dactylis glomerata was sown, when gathered in autumn and kept 

 under a bell glass through the winter ; in the following spring a 

 large crop of Cordyceps purpurea was produced. Ergot of rye 

 bought at a chemist's, although then quite dry, and sown as 



