148 GALLS. 



fungus which protrudes from the husk in the form of a 

 club-shaped body. 



12. This disease is more commonly met with on 

 the continent than with us ; and is chiefly seen attacking 

 plants in a poor and wet soil. 



13. The most remarkable point connected with the 

 diseased state of the Grass is that when the diseased 

 structure is received into the human system, a tendency 

 to gangrene very often fatal, arises, which takes place in 

 the extremities. 



14. This happens in those cases in which bread, made 

 of the diseased grain, has been eaten. 



15. When some of the fungus is taken in small 

 quantities by the female during parturition, strong mus- 

 cular contractions of the uterus ensue ; its action upon 

 the uterus, however, is not alone confined to this period, 

 as in Germany it has been lately employed, and seem- 

 ingly with much advantage, in profuse and violent 

 menorrhagia. 



GALLS. 



16. The plant most liable to the attacks of this 

 disease is the Oak ; it consists in the production of a 

 number of excrescences upon the petioles, leaves, etc., 

 of the plant, which are caused by an insect, the Cynips 

 quercifolise, piercing with its sting the substance of the 

 plant, and then depositing its eggs in the small opening 

 it has left. 



1 7 . The irritation which this produces, occasions, as 

 it always does in organized bodies, a greater flow or 

 modified dynamic state of the fluids at the part, deposi- 

 tion of matter takes place at the wound, and an excres- 

 cence is the result. 



18. Dr. Thomson says, " it is puzzling to conceive 

 how the insertion of so minute a body as the egg of the 



