FARMERS^ REGISTER— SPURRED RYE. 



87 



as Ave may well call them, have received their 

 Iteenest edge from the consideration that they are 

 in part the necessary, the bitter consequences of a 

 supine and narrow legislation. As a peoj)le, we 

 have literally taken no thought for ourselves, what 

 we should eat or what we should put on. We 

 have left the state to grow like the lily of the field, 

 and verily it is not arrayed like Solomon in all his 

 glory. Let us, fellow countrj^men, change this 

 wretched policy which has bound us down to po- 

 verty, or sent us exiles trom our native land, to 

 seek in the wilds of the west that provision for our 

 own wants, and establishment for our children 

 which was denied to our industry at home. The 

 power to redress your grievances lies entirely with 

 yourselves. Assemble in j-our respective counties 

 and demand of your representatives, to whom you 

 commit the fate of yourselves and children, tliat 

 they will adopt some scheme of improvement com- 

 mensurate with the wants of the state, and that 

 they will begin some public work of such magni- 

 tude, that on its completion we may know from an 

 actual experiment whether the state can be im- 

 proved. If such pledge be taken generally in the 

 counties, we shall at last have some legislative ac- 

 tion on internal improvements, and it seems pretty 

 certain from the proceedings of the last assembly, 

 that we shall not till then. 



Your destinies, under providence, are in your 

 own hands, and now you are at a most important 

 crisis; throughout the civilized world, and in our 

 own Union particularly, the wealth and talent of 

 every community are turned towards the full dc- 

 velopement of their physical and moral resources, 

 and if you stand back from the glorious contest, 

 the loss and the shame will be on you and your 

 children. But we hope better things of you; eveiy 

 where among us, the minds of all who love their 

 country, are turned ^vith eager expectation to a 

 general and united effort towards the improvement 

 of the state, and we will not anticipate their disap- 

 pointment. We will hope from your public spirit, 

 that our legislation at your command shall be 

 changed, and that the state will shake of her letli- 

 argy and rise to that wealth and political po^ver 

 which her territory and population place withm 

 her reach. 



DUNCAN CAMERON, Cho'n. 

 GEORGE E. BADGER, 

 DANIEL L. BARRINGER, 

 WILLIAM BOYLAN, 

 WILLIAM II. HAYWOOD 

 CHARLES L. HINTON, 

 GAVIN HOGG, 

 JAMES IREDELL, 

 ALFRED JONES, 

 HENRY SEAWELL. 



JR. 



ERGOT, OR SPURRED RYE. 



Rye is liable to be diseased by an insect deposit- 

 ing its animalcula m the grain, which causes it to 

 sprout and produce an excrescence like a cock's 

 spur, of a hard texture. When ground down with 

 the flour, or used in distillation, it proves a mortal 

 poison, and at times has proved a pestilential 

 scourge of Europe. It has been equally fatal in 

 America, and is supposed to have been the chief 

 cause of the plague in London. In 1811 and 1812, 

 a great number of lives were lost from the spurred 

 rye being used as Ibod, and liquor distilled from 



the rye. The great mortality was chiefly confined 

 to New York and Vermont. Upwards of twenty 

 thousand victims fell a sacrifice to the ravages pro- 

 duced by that dreadtul poison. Meeting after meet- 

 ing of the iaculty took jilace, to endeavor to dis- 

 cover the cause; and after the most mature delib- 

 eration, it Avas discovered by Dr. Hosack and his 

 party, that it was a poisonous miasma floating in 

 the air, confined to certain prescribed limits, and 

 affecting certain persons, more particidarly those 

 that were in the habit of drinking gin: the best 

 apology for their ignorance of the true cause, the 

 ergot or spurred rye. What made their report the 

 more ridiculous was, that there was at that time a 

 fine, clear, black, hard frost, and the healthiest 

 weather that could be imagined. Many of the 

 members were sceptical, and could not believe the 

 report; they thought that owing to the fine weather 

 it was impossible for the contagion to exist in the 

 air; others were of the same opinion with the doc- 

 tors. One of the non-contagionists wrote and re- 

 quested me to go to Albany, Avhere the disorder 

 was then raging, and wishing me to endeavor to 

 discover the cause of the afflictmg calamity. On 

 my journey from New York to Albany, where the 

 legislature of the state was sitting, I stopped at a 

 place called Kinderhook; and being cold, contrary 

 to my usual practice, I drank a gla.ss of gin. I had 

 not drank it many minutes before it affected me as 

 if I had taken something boiling hot in my sto- 

 mach. Although I immediately took an emetic, 

 which produced the most active effects, the poison 

 had taken so firm a hold of my constitution, that 

 my throat and rectum were extremely painful. I 

 had a cold perspiration towards the morning, with 

 a pain in my bones and head, Avhcreas I was in 

 perfect health bclbre I drank the gin. I accused 

 the tavern keeper of putting poison in the gin: a 

 gentleman of the town who heard me, and had 

 observed that the habitual gin drinkers in the place 

 had died, seconded me in my charge. The land- 

 lord declared he was innocent, and referred us to 

 the distillery. Upon our appljdng, the distiller was 

 much alarmed at our charge of his putting poison 

 in the gin; and added, it would be his ruin if the 

 report got abroad, in consequence of the great 

 mortality. He took a voluntary oath that he put 

 nothing but the pure grain into his gin, and invited 

 us to see the grain in the still house loft. We found 

 it on inspection badly cleaned, and probably one- 

 tenth of it spurred rye, or rye vitiated by being in- 

 fused with the clavus or ergot. I was quite aston- 

 ished when I saw it, particularly as it was so well 

 described by Dr. Darwin, a.s being a pestilential 

 scourge in various parts of Europe, producing what 

 is called by Dr. Mason Good, in his history of 

 medicine, mildew mortification: in America it was 

 vulgarly called dry rot. On dissection I have ob- 

 served that the windpipe and rectum were so com- 

 pletely parched by the action of the air stimulat- 

 ing or attracting the effects of the poison to the 

 parts, that when pressed they would give way, 

 and appear like black snuff. I lost no time in re- 

 pairing to Albany. On my arrival the inhabitants 

 were in mourning, on account of the loss of their 

 relatives and friends, some of whom had risen in 

 health in the morning, had eaten a hearty break- 

 fast, and at noon were in eternity! Such was the 

 rapid effects of that inflammation, which was as- 

 cribed by the doctors of New York to the air of 

 Albany being charged with the damps of death. 



