xxvii.] ERGOT. 227 



some of the effects of this pest, and say how its general 

 prevalence may be reduced. 



The consumption of ergot when it is ground up with 

 grain causes chronic dry, black, or livid gangrene, some- 

 times with but little fever, inflammation, or pain. The 

 limbs affected become insensible and cold, and, in the 

 progress of the disorder, dry, hard, black, and withered. 

 In some instances violent pain has been recorded, with 

 redness, insupportable heat, and delirium. A line of 

 separation, reaching to the bone, is formed by the disease 

 between the dead and living tissues. Ergot is especially 

 potent, when taken fresh and raw, in exciting strong uterine 

 contractions ; and when a small portion only is consumed, 

 it causes weaker contractions which wear out the injured 

 animal with fatigue. A correspondent of the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, 1st June 1876, states that he has observed 

 cows lose their calves prematurely at the time ergot 

 appears. It is curious that, when ergot is ground with 

 grain and cooked in bread, abortion or premature birth is 

 not the usual result. It has been computed that in wet 

 seasons, in some parts of France, one-fourth of the rye 

 used for bread consists of ergot ; the poor, it appears, taking 

 no pains to separate the ergots, and the result of its con- 

 sumption is often some form of ergotism. M. Duchamel 

 mentions, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy for 1748, 

 that out of 120 persons attacked scarcely four or five 

 escaped with their lives. 



In the Philosophical Transactions (1763) vol. lii., part 

 ii., for the year 1762, p. 526, is a printed extract from a 

 letter from the Rev. James Bones, M.A., of Wattisham, 

 near Stowmarket, Suffolk, to George Baker, M.D., F.R.S., 

 relating to a case of mortification of limbs in a family there. 



The letter says that on Sunday, 10th January, Mary, 

 daughter of John and Mary Downing, sixteen years old, 

 felt a violent pain in her left leg, which, in an hour 

 or two, also affected her foot, and particularly her toes. 

 On the next day her toes were much swollen, and black 



