RYE. 55 



excrescence just mentioned is an irregular vegetation, 

 which springs from the middle substance, between the 

 grain and the leaf, growing to the length of an inch 

 and a half, and being two tenths of an inch broad: it 

 is of a brownish colour. 



Bread which is made of rye thus diseased has an 

 acrid and nauseous taste, and its use is followed by 

 spasmodic symptoms and gangrenous disorders. 

 These effects cannot by any means be classed among 

 imaginary evils. In 1596 an epidemic prevailed in 

 Hesse, which was wholly ascribed to the use of 

 horned rye. Some of the persons who had unfor- 

 tunately partaken of this food were seized with 

 epilepsy, the attacks of which, for the most part, 

 ended fatally; of others, who became insane, few 

 ever fully recovered the proper use of their senses; 

 while some, who were apparently restored, were 

 liable through life to periodical returns of their 

 disorder. 



Similar calamities were experienced in different 

 parts of the Continent at various times, between 1648 

 and 1 736, and these visitations have been recorded 

 by Burghart, Hoffman, and others. In 1709, this 

 diseased condition of the rye occurred in a part of 

 France to such a degree, that in consequence of it 

 no fewer than five hundred patients were at one 

 time under care of the surgeons at the public hos- 

 pital at Orleans. The symptoms first came on with 

 all the apparent characteristics of drunkenness, after 

 which the toes became diseased, mortified, and fell 

 off. The disorder thence extended itself up the leg, 

 and frequently attacked the trunk, and this some- 

 times occurred even after amputation of the dis- 

 eased limbs had been performed, with the vain hope 

 of stopping the progress of the disorder. 



The poisonous quality of horned rye is not exerted 

 upon human beings alone, both insects and larger 



