8 Dissertation on Secale Cornutumy or Ergot, 



ders of fields, than in other parts, where the soil is less 

 beaten and more mellow. The humidity being equal, 

 those fields are most infested with it, which have been 

 newly turned up. 



The soil and climate of Sologne are so peculiarly 

 adapted to the growth of this substance, that it is said 

 to produce more of it, than all France beside ; for, in 

 some years, not less than one fourth of all the grain, 

 raised in that province, is ergotted. In this district 

 and its vicinity, there has, at different periods, pre- 

 vailed among the peasants, a very malignant and mor- 

 tal disease, which is characterized by a dry gangrene 

 in some one of the extremities, sometimes in all of 

 them, which has been generally ascribed to their living 

 upon bread, made of the ergotted rye.^ This bread, 

 M. Dodart informs us, does not differ, in regard to 

 taste, from ordinary bread ; is more particularly perni- 

 cious when new ; but its effects are not observed un- 

 til it has been eaten a considerable time. According 

 to the observations of M. Noel, the ergot loses its de- 

 leterious qualities altogether, after having been kept a 

 few months in sheaf : and writers all agree in this, that 

 the disease it is supposed to induce is prevalent only 

 at the conclusion of harvest, and ceases entirely before 

 the commencement of the winter. 



Besides this spontaneous gangrene of the limbs, 

 Hoffman and other writers have attributed also to its 

 use, another species of disease, which prevailed at dif- 

 ferent periods, in various parts of Europe, attended 



* For a particular account of this disease, and the method adopt- 

 ed for its cure, vid. Duncan's Med. Com. Vol. ix, p. 78. 



