C 5 3 



Extract from a Dissertation on the Natural History 

 and medical effects of the Secale Comutum, or Er- 

 got, by Oliver Prescott, A. M.* 



This production is generated by a peculiar disease, 

 which occasionally affects the grains of rye, and is 

 one of the four diseases of plants enumerated by Lin- 

 n^us, and by him denominated clavus ; some natural- . 

 ists call it clavus secalinus or mater secalis, others seca- 

 le corjiutum, and secale luxurians. The French term, 

 this production bled cornu, seigle ergote, or ergot. 

 This disease very often attacks the rye in France. In 

 the province of Salonia, [Sologne] more especially, it 

 is very predominant ; and in such seasons as are very 

 moist, is occasionally seen in Great Britain and other 

 parts of Europe. The rye in this country also, is so 

 liable to the same disease, that in our new settlements, 

 there is always, I believe, more or less of it to be 

 found in this grain ; but is more rarely to be discover^ 

 cd on fields that have been kept in a state of con- 

 stant cultivation, for a considerable number of years ; 

 as those in the vicinity of Boston, and other towns on 

 the sea-board. 



The earliest account of this diseased rye is probably 

 that of M. Dodart in 1676 ; the latest I have seen is a 

 memoir of L'abbe Tessier, read before the Royal Me- 

 dical Society at Paris in 1776. To this last I am 

 principally indebted for the following facts relative to 

 its natural history, most of which accord with my own 

 observations. 



Eclectic Repertory, Vol. IV, No. 2, page 249. 



