47 



KBGOT. 



ERIOMETER. 



drachms be taken, it causes giddiness, headache, flushed face, pain 

 and spasms in the stomach, nausea and vomiting, with colic, purging, 

 and a sense of weariness and weight in the limbs. In the case of 

 parturient females, when given at a certain stage of the labour, it is 

 admitted by most practitioners and writers to produce specific effects, 

 and to expedite the labour in a very marked manner. It is by some 

 persons alleged to produce hurtful eflecta upon the child ; but such 

 consequences probably occur only when it has been used at an improper 

 stage of the labour ; or when it ought not to have been employed 

 under any circumstances. The rules for its employment are given 

 in works devoted to obstetrics, to which we refer. It has likewise 

 been recommended in menorrhagia and in leucorrhoea, against the 

 former of which it is most useful when dependent on debility. 



The extraordinary effects of the ergot of rye have made it the subject 

 of experiments in medicine. It has consequently become an article of 

 commerce as a drug, and imported from the Continent. By an atten- 

 tive observation of the circumstances which favour this disease in the 

 rye, it might 1 >e profitable to cultivate the plant expressly for the ergot 

 it produces. The seed which grows on the same ear with the ergot 

 might be selected for seed, and a cold wet soil, with an ungenial aspect, 

 might be chosen as most likely to perpetuate the disease, or steeping 

 the most healthy seeds in water in which the sporidia of the oidium 

 abortifadem are contained, will, when planted, propagate the diseased 

 form of the grain. The ergot is sold by druggists at from 10 to 20. 

 per ounce, so that, if only a pound of ergot could be collected, it would 

 be worth more than the produce in sound grain of an acre of the best 

 land. At all events, it will well repay the trouble of picking out the 

 ergot from the rye, where it is infected, and it is easily discovered, 

 before reaping, from its prominence and black colour. 



The nervous symptoms arising from the use of bread formed 

 of i-purred rye, may in general be cured by emetics, laxatives, 

 and frequent small doses of opium, provided this treatment be 

 adopted in reasonable time, and the unwholesome food completely 

 withdrawn. 



The tendency to dry gangrene is to be combatted by the use 

 of cinchona and cordials, with local applications to the part threat- 

 ened. The noxious food must be completely relinquished. (Christison 

 ' On Poisons.') 



This diseased condition of the seeds of certain grasses is also a 

 matter of very great agricultural importance ; its prevalence being 

 the probable cause of much of the abortion of which dairy herds are 

 sometimes the subject. A writer in the ' Agricultural Gazette ' thus 

 refers to the matter : " In the western climate of this kingdom, the 

 existence of this disease in the grasses of our pastures is by no means 

 uncommon in the autumn of the year. An examination of the seed 

 stems of our meadows will generally give evidence of the disease, but 

 it is only when it is abundant that its influence is so manifest. 

 Unfortunately much of the grass land in the moist climate of the 

 west is too frequently the cause of trouble and loss by causing the 

 abortion of the cows fed thereon. The disease is seldom found upon 

 grass land which has been mown in the same season, and even when it 

 is found its occurrence is so casual as to be of little importance. The 

 land which has been grazed during the summer is that upon which 

 the ergotised grass is found to exist most abundantly, because the 

 stock having avoided the seed stems, these have been enabled to 

 fulfil their special functions and produce seed which has subsequently 

 become diseased. It is clear that if prevention is the object to be 

 aimed at, this will be best attained by keeping breeding stock from 

 land thus bearing a diseased produce. This may be accomplished on 

 the majority of farms by removing the breeding cows and heifers from 

 their summer pasturage, say in July, and keeping them afterwards 

 upon land which had been mown that season. The removal of the 

 stock should not be delayed until any case of abortion has positively 

 occurred, because, that having once commenced it rapidly spreads 

 through any herd, and often in opposition to every care. As 

 soon as there is seed formed upon the seed-stems of the grass, the 

 prudent breeder may take notice of danger, and his wisest policy will 

 undoubtedly be to put his cows and heifers upon the after-grass. 

 There are very many districts where the climate, from being dry, does 

 not render this precaution necessary, but at the same time there are 

 numerous tracts of land where the moisture of the climate acts upon 

 the grass seeds, and favours the growth of ergotised grass, and such 

 land IK noted for the difficulty experienced in keeping the stock in 

 proper breeding order. The age of the foetus appears to be a matter 

 of small importance, for it varies from two months upwards at the 

 time when the abortion takes place. Some stock are much more 

 sensitive to influences of this kind than others, and this is doubtless 

 dejwndant upon their health and vigour ; and thus stock which are 

 well bred, i.e., nearly related, are more liable to injury in this way 

 than those which are inferior in this respect : for although by judicious 

 breeding we improve the' general character of an animal, yet at the 

 same time this altered character is generally accompanied by diminished 

 rigour. 



" This explains how the'best bred cowa and heifers will often throw 

 their calves, whilst some common stock about which the breeder is 

 indifferent will frequently escape, although their treatment and food 

 may be similar, and each may have partaken of this ergotised grass. 

 Knowing as we do the action of this diseased form of grass seed, it 



oecomes highly important that we should in this way avoid a cause 80 

 prolific of trouble and loss to many of our best breeders." 



ERQOTIN is an active principle contained in ergot. [Eucor, NAT. 

 HIST. Div. | It may be prepared by the following process, advantage 

 being taken of its insolubility in water or ether and its solubility in 

 alcohol. Powdered ergot is first thoroughly exhausted with ether by 

 percolation, to get rid of fatty matter ; it is then digested in boiling 

 alcohol, filtered, the filtrate evaporated to the consistence of an 

 extract, and the extract treated with water, which leaves the < 

 undissolved. 



Ergotin has an acrid bitter taste, and, when warmed, a peculiar, 

 unpleasant odour. It is soluble in caustic alkalies from which it is 

 precipitated unchanged on addition of dilute acids. Strong sulphuric 

 and acetic acids also dissolve it, dilution with water causing it to be 

 again thrown down. It is infusible, and in contact with the air burns 

 with a peculiar odour. Nitric acid decomposes ergotin. 



Under the name of Bonjean'i Eryotin, there occurs in pharmacy a 

 preparation obtained by digesting the aqueous extract in alcohol 

 and evaporating the solution to a proper consistence. As erf,'. 'tin, 

 properly so called, is in the pure state insoluble in water, it follows 

 that Bonjean's preparation must owe its activity either to some 

 other substance than ergotin, or that in the process for obtaining 

 the aqueous extract, the ergotin is rendered soluble in water by the 

 presence of other bodies in the ergot. 



Ergotin is a poison, slow but deadly. 



ERI'DANUS (the river Eridanus), a constellation first mentioned 

 by Aratus, who calls it Eridanus. Hyginus states it to have been 

 from the Nile, and assigns a reason [CANOPUS] ; but the scholiast on 

 Aratus states this to have been peculiar to the Egyptians. In the 

 heavens it is a winding stream, not very well marked by stars, 

 extending from a bright star (a) of the first magnitude, called Acher- 

 nes, and situated near the southern part of Phoenix, past the feet of 

 Cetus, and ending at the star Rigel in Orion. Its principal stars are 

 as follows : 



Character. 



T 1 



T 1 



1) 



T" 



S 



1* 



No. in Catalogue 



of Flamstced. 



Lacaillc, c. 



1 

 2 

 3 



11 



12 



13 



16 



17 



18 



19 



23 



27 



32 



33 



34 



38 



41 



48 



52 



53 



57 



69 



484 c 

 575 c 

 693o 



No. in Catalogue 



of British 

 Association. 



856 



887 



910 



954 



997 

 1013 

 1037 

 1090 

 1100 

 1104 

 1148 

 1181 

 1216 

 1217 

 1234 

 1290 

 1333 

 1429 

 1433 

 1441 

 1469 

 1597 



507 



596 



717 



Magnitude. 

 4 

 4 

 3 

 4 



3-5 

 4 



3-5 

 4 



3-5 

 4 



3-5 

 4 

 4 

 4 



2-5 

 4-5 

 3-5 

 4 



8-5 

 4 

 4 

 4 

 1 

 4 

 4 



ERIOMETER, an instrument invented by Dr. Thomas Young, for 

 measuring the diameter of minute fibres, such as those of wool, 

 whence the name (from tpiov, wool, and /itrpov, a measure). 



If we gently breathe upon a plate of glass, or scatter some very 

 fine powder upon it, such as Lycopndium dust, and look through it at 

 the sun or a candle, a number of rings of colour will be seen. There 

 will be first round the luminous source a light area, terminating in a 

 reddish dark margin ; then a ring of bluish green, succeeded by a red 

 ring, and these two last colours will be repeated several times if the 

 particles are uniform in diameter. The effect is something like that 

 produced by a halo round the sun or moon. As the diameter of the 

 rings varies with the size of the particles, or fibres, it occurred 

 Young that the diameters of these minute bodies might be mi i 

 by determining the size of the rings produced by them. His eriometer 

 consisted of a piece of card or a plate of brass with a hole about ',i!i 

 of an inch in diameter in the centre of a circle about half an inch in 

 diameter, the circumference of which was perforated with eight or 

 ten holes made as minute as possible. The fibres or particles to be 

 measured are fixed in a slider, and the instrument being jila. , ,1 la-fore- 

 a strong light, the observer, assisted by a lens behiml the small hole, 

 will see the rings. The slider must be drawn out until the limit of 

 the first green ring and the red one coincides with the circle of per- 

 forations, and the index will then show on the scale the magnitude of 

 the particles or fibres. The unit on this scale is that of the seed of 

 the Lycoperdon boriita, which was ascertained by Dr. Wollaston to be 



