100 EIIGOT IN WHEAT. 



who state that they never met with It. But 

 the same individuals would, perhaps, in other 

 places, discover more than they wish to find. 

 Professor Henslow desired his miller to search 

 for him in two bushels of revet wheat, and he 

 quickly produced three dozen specimens, and 

 said there was as many more left in the sam- 

 ple. The author in 1844 suspected the exist- 

 ence of ergot in certain low lands in a village 

 near Great Yarmouth, and requested the miller 

 of the place to look into the corn when sent to 

 be ground from one particular farm.er, on a very 

 small occupation near the marshes. The mil- 

 ler soon received from this place four bushels 

 of wheat, and on searching found directly forty- 

 eight specimens, which he brought to the 

 author. The following season the author 

 searched in a wheat field on the same little 

 farm, and could not find any ergot in it ; but 

 gathered a large quantity in the grasses grow- 

 ing in the same district, in places where the 

 drainage was bad. 



The medicinal effects of ergot, in small doses, 

 have already been noticed as being extremely 

 powerful, but if taken to any extent its results 

 on the animal frame are truly awful. This has 

 been proved by numerous experiments, of 



