6 Dissertation on Secale Cornutum, or Ergot, 



This diseased grain, which I shall call ergot, is found 

 in the car of the rye, in greater or less quantity, ac- 

 cording to the season, and its situation. Its form is 

 ordinarily crooked and long ; it projects much from 

 the glume ; is larger in the middle than at the extre- 

 mities, which are sometimes blunt, and sometimes 

 pointed. It is seldom round in its whole length, there 

 being generally three angles, and certain longitudinal 

 lines, extending from one end to the other. In many 

 grains, particularly the largest, there are small cavities, 

 supposed by some to be occasioned by insects, by 

 others, by the sun. Its external colour is violet of 

 different degrees of intensity, which encloses a dull 

 white substance of a firm consistence, from which the 

 external coat does not separate itself even after long 

 boiling. 



A grain of ergot breaks short, like a dry almond, 

 and has nothing disagreeable either in its odour or 

 taste ; the grains are of different size, and vary in their 

 length. Some are less than the grains of rye them- 

 selves, while others, are eighteen or nineteen lines in 

 length, and two or three in thickness ; but the length 

 is more usually ten or twelve lines. Sometimes they 

 are short, and at the same time large ; but these are 

 not of an ordinary form. 



When the ergot is large, there are generally but few 

 upon an ear, and the grains of rye, on the same ear, 

 are fine and healthy, and the whole plant vigorous ; on 

 the contrary, when the grains of ergot are small, there 

 are many on an ear, and the stalk is less strong and 

 thrifty. There are commonly found four or five of 

 these grains upon one ear, frequently ten or twelve, 

 and sometimes, even twenty. The grains of rye in 



