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On the Ergot in Maize, and its Effects on Man and Animals. 

 By M. RouLiN *. 



Xt has long been known that rye, affected with the ergot, when 

 taken as food, gives rise to convulsive and gangrenous diseases. 

 It is also known, that, when properly administered, it exercises 

 a particular action upon the uterus ; and its efficacy, as a medi- 

 cine, seems now sufficiently proved. It was supposed from ana- 

 logy, that the ergot developed similar properties in all the gra- 

 mineae which it attacks, but hitherto the accuracy of this sup- 

 position has not been proved by any direct experiment. 



During a residence in America, M. Roulin had occasion to 

 observe the ergot upon a cereal plant which has never been at- 

 tacked by it in Europe, the Maize, which, in all the warm parts 

 of Columbia, forms a principal article of food to the lower 

 classes. The symptoms much resembled, in some respects, 

 those produced by rye in the same state, but in others differed 

 materially. 



In Columbia, maize, thus altered, is called Mais peladero, 

 that is, maize which causes the hair to fall off. In fact, it pro- 

 duces this effect, which is so much the more remarkable in a 

 country where baldness is almost unknown even in old persons. 

 Sometimes, also, but more rarely, it causes looseness and falling 

 out of the teeth ; but the author never saw it produce gangrene 

 of the limbs, or convulsive diseases. 



The accidents produced by maize affected with the ergot, ap- 

 pear, therefore, in Columbia less terrible, than those which, in 

 our climates, result from rye in the same state. May this dif- 

 ference depend upon the circumstance that the American pea- 

 sants, who, in many cases, use the banana in place of bread, 

 make but a very limited use of maize ? Should the cause be 

 sought for in the difference of composition of the two kinds of 

 grain, maize not containing gluten, a substance highly putres- 

 cible .-* This the author does not decide. 



In hogs, which make use of the spoiled maize, the hair is 



• M. E. Roulin's Memoir was lately read to the French Academy of 

 Sciences, but is not yet published. 



