106 EKGOTETIA. 



from such as have been thoroughly well drained, 

 seems to point to this as its chief preventive. 

 After searching in vain over a large well-farmed 

 parish for ergot in wheat, during the autumn 

 of 1844, the author requested'a small farmer 

 to look over some that was grown on a wet 

 clayey spot close to a ditch adjoining a marsh. 

 He was soon presented with three or four spe- 

 cimens from the suspected place, one or two of 

 which had the chaff scales still adhering to 

 them. This seems to confirm the supposition 

 as to its favourite localities, and at once to 

 suggest the best method of getting rid of it. 

 Professor Henslow appears to be of the same 

 opinion, and hints that when ergot is wanted 

 for medicinal objects, it might probably be 

 always obtained if grown where such conditions 

 of soil present themselves. 



The fungus, before said to accompany the 

 disease, and to which it has been attributed, 

 is called ergotetia. The mere fact, how- 

 ever, of coincidence, does not ppove cause 

 and effect. It has a nasty smutty appear- 

 ance, and the author has seen the dadospo- 

 rium herbarum, previously noticed, growing 

 with it on the chaff scales of the ergotted ears 

 of rye. Such a transmutation of nutritious 



