VOL. LII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ^iQ 



rather old, in which they boiled milk, &c. The man tells me they are in con- 

 stant use, and never were cankered. 



Pease. — They have now and then eaten pease and pease broth. These they 

 have always bought, as others do, at the shop : and they have never disagreed 

 with any of the family, except only on Sunday, January iO. Three of the chil- 

 dren were then sick after eating them; but became easy after they had vomited. 



Pork. — This they generally bought pickled of the farmer whom I lodge with. 

 The farmer's family, and several others, have constantly eaten it. In this part 

 of the country there is a great deal of old ewe-mutton killed, between the first of 

 November and January, some of which is very poor and rotten, and is usually 

 sold at 3 halfpence, or perhaps one penny a pound. In December last this fa- 

 mily lived for 3 weeks at least on this mutton, of which they bought a quarter 

 at a time, weighing ^ or 8 lb., for one shilling. The man is so prepossessed 

 with notions of witchcraft, and is so obstinate in his opinion, that I cannot ex- 

 cite in him even a desire of attributing this disease to any other cause. 



Since my last letter to you, Mary, aged l6, who sat for 14 weeks in a great 

 chair, and for 7 days without any feet^ or flesh on her leg-bones, has consented 

 to have the bones taken off. She is now in bed ; the abscess is healing, and 

 she seems likely to do well. The father's fingers are almost healed : but he every 

 day feels severe darting pains in many parts of his body. The mother lies in bed 

 with her leg-bones bare, which she will not suffer to be taken off. Her hands 

 are still benumbed, but not black. Her fingers are contracted. The rest of the 

 family seem to be recovering perfect health." — In addition, Dr. B. says. 



There is in L'Hist. de I'Acad. Royale des Sciences, for the j'car 1710, a paper, 

 the title of which is, Sur le bled* cornu appelle Ergot. Here it is said, that 

 M. Noel, surgeon of the Hotel-Dieu at Orleans, had sent an account to a mem- 

 ber of the academy, that within about a years time, he had received into the 

 hospital more than 50 patients affected d'une gangrene seche, noire et livide, 

 which began at the toes, and advanced more or less, being sometimes continued 

 even to the thighs; and that he had only seen one patient who had been first 

 seized with it in the hand. He adds, that he observed that this disease affected 

 the men only; and that in general the females, except some very young girls^ 

 were quite free from it. In the same paper is mentioned, as a fact well known 

 to the academy, the case of a peasant who lived near Blois. In this patient a 

 gangrene, at its first attack, destroyed all the toes of one foot, then those of 

 the other, afterwards the remaining parts of both feet ; then the flesh of both- 

 his legs, and that of his thighs, rotted off successively, and left nothing but bare 

 bones. 



* Secale corniculaturn nigrum, mentioned as a poison by Hoffman. — Orig. 



