366 EUTOCIA. 



nals, &c., (fee. Stearns, Prescot, Chapman, Bordot, Goupil, Chev- 

 reul, Legras, Bigeschi, Gendrin, and especially M. Villeneuve, have 

 collected an infinite number of facts that prove decisively that the 

 ergot of rye is capable of restoring the contractions of the womb 

 during labor. However, MM. Desormeaux and Capuron do not 

 appear to have much confidence in it, and Madame Lachapelle has 

 published a long series of experiments, which tend to show that it 

 enjoys no property of the kind, whether given in fine or coarse pow- 

 der, in infusion or in decoction, in extract or in syrup. In the last 

 four years I have used it more than twenty times; M. Delanglar and 

 M. Terreux have also used it at my solicitation, and in every case 

 its action has appeared to be evident, undeniable. It forces the 

 uterus to contract in a few minutes, in a quarter of an hour, or, at 

 most in twenty minutes after it is exhibited. I have very recently 

 had another most convincing proof of its efficacy: to a young wo- 

 man who had been twenty-four hours in labor, I gave three doses in 

 the space of forty minutes; within five minutes after the first one, the 

 pains, which had for several hours been very feeble and slow, sud- 

 denly became strong and very frequent, but soon relaxed again; the 

 second dose brought them back in the same way: they diminished a 

 second time, and it was not until after the third dose that they were 

 maintained until the complete expulsion of the foetus, which soon 

 took place. 



I prescribe it in the quantity of fifteen or twenty grains in a spoon- 

 ful or half a wineglassful of sweetened water, and repeat the dose 

 two or three times, at intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes. Per- 

 haps a larger quantity may be safely given: Parmentier took half a 

 drachm of it; MM. Lapre and Campernon a drachm, and a drachm 

 and a half, for several days together, without experiencing any sensi- 

 ble effects from it; its use might therefore be continued for a long 

 time and in large doses, before any well grounded fear of inducing 

 ergotism could be entertained. 



855. It is to be hoped that the chemists will ere long separate the 

 essentially active principle of this substance; MM. Desgranges and 

 Lapre have already observed that four or five grains of the bark 

 produce a greater effect than twelve or fifteen of the entire grain. 

 I have no doubt that a preparation will be discovered ere long, whose 

 energy shall be uniform; but, meanwhile, a fine powder made of 

 the entire grain appears to me to be preferable to the decoctions, 

 extracts, &c. 



856. In order that the ergot of rye may be given with some chance 

 of success, and without any danger, it is necessary, 1st, that there 

 should be no manifest tendency to hemorrhage from excess of irrita- 



