ILL EFFECTS OP SMUT. 75 



Although tliis does not exactly correspond with one result I have obtained, and 

 recorded below, it is most desirable that experiments should be continued on the subject. 

 Balardini confirms the observation of Vallenzosca della Palcadina, that the pellagra 

 recorded by Odoardo as prevailing in the Alps of Bellano in 1776 completely disappeared 

 on the introduction of the potato as the basis of the food of the poor. 



M. Signad, in his Diseases of Brazil, attributes the chlorosis or intertropical anaemia 

 among the black slaves and the inhabitants on the western side of the Sierra dos Organos 

 to the exclusive use of Indian corn. 



The symptoms recorded by Jubins are, pallor of the face and body, yellowish, some 

 what transparent, and sometimes greenish tint of the skin. The blacks that become 

 affected lose their color. 



M. Ruldin records, in the fifth volume of the Journal de Chimie Medicale, some 

 observations on what he calls ergot of maize, but which Heusinger believes is the ordinary 

 charbon, or smut. Roulin saw this diseased grain in the southern parts of Colombia, 

 where it is called maiz peladera. Its use causes people to lose their hair, and this is very 

 remarkable in a country where baldheadedness is almost unknown, even among old people. 



Sometimes it causes looseness and the loss of teeth, but never gangrene of the limbs 

 nor convulsive maladies. Pigs at first dislike this diseased corn, but soon acquire a taste 

 for it, and after eating it for a few days their bristles drop out, and subsequently there is 

 an awkwardness in the movements of their hind legs, and atrophy of those limbs. Eating 

 the pigs produces no ill effects on man. Mules eat the maiz peladera, lose their hair, and 

 suffer from engorgements of the limbs; they are tied in distant pastures, and with the 

 change of diet some recover. Hens fed on the material lay eggs without shells. In the 

 corn fields where the disease prevails it is not uncommon to see monkeys and parrots fall 

 unable to rise again. The indigenous dogs and deer that enter the corn fields at night 

 suffer in the same way. 



It is asserted that across the Paramos, in the colder parts of Colombia, these 

 accidents are not seen ; and Dr. Roulin has indeed witnessed them only in the provinces 

 of Neyra and Mariquita. 



Dulong* has analyzed corn smut, and although his analysis cannot at the present day 

 be considered satisfactory, it is the only one on record. He found it to contain a material 

 similar to fungine, a material allied to osmazone, a nitrogenous substance, a fatty matter, 

 a waxy matter, acids, a brown coloring matter, a free organic acid, and combinations of 

 this acid with magnesia and potash ; lastly, he found phosphate, muriate, and sulphate of 

 potash, subphosphate of lime, sal ammoniac, &quot;and oxide of iron ; it contained no starch. 



Anxious to try some experiments on the action of pure smut on cattle, I employed a 

 negro in January, 1869, to go into the country and collect for me a large quantity of pure 

 smut. 



It was rather late, and the rains had washed most of it off the still standing stalks ; 

 but I obtained forty-two pounds of excellent smut, free from adventitious matters. On 

 the 26th day of February, Mr. George Reid, of Ingleside farm, near Washington, D. C., 

 purchased two cows, in good health, and aged respectively about seven years. One cow 

 was fed thrice daily one and one-half pound of corn-meal aud three ounces of smut, mixed 

 with as much cut hay- as she would eat. The second had the same allowance, but wet. 



* Journal tie I biinuacie, vol. xiv. 



