2l6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 765. 



sphacelation of the limbs; but they seldom lived long afterwards. 4° Amputa- 

 tion only served to accelerate the patient's destruction. 5° Out of 120 patients, 

 scarcely 4 or 5 recovered; all the rest died within six months. 6° The blood 

 was so viscid that it would hardly flow from a vein. 7° An inflammation of the 

 skin, denoted a suppuration in that part. 8° There was no occasion for the 

 tourniquet or ligature after amputation. Q° In Sologne, which is a marshy 

 country, the disorder commonly attacks the feet. 10" As, from the beginning 

 the intellects, in all instances, are more or less impaired, the patients are inca- 

 pable of giving any account of their illness ; their countenances are yellow, and 

 they become so much emaciated as to resemble corpses. 11° The disorder is 

 by no means contagious. 



Mons. Puy, first surgeon to the hospital at Lyons, informed Dr. T. that he 

 had often seen there, and always in rainy years, some patients labouring under 

 this disorder, brought from the neighbourhood. Among those patients was a 

 woman from whom both the lower extremities dropped off. The most distres- 

 sing symptom to such patients, is the sensation of a burning fire in the affected 

 part. He added that he had heard of some instances of this disorder occurring 

 in Dauphiny. 



Dr. T. next quotes various authors (bb, cc) to show that spurred rye is 

 poisonous to quadrupeds, poultry, and other brute animals, as well as to man. 

 He then puts the following questions : 



1° What is the cause of this degeneration of rye? He remarks that this 

 question is involved in the greatest obscurity; but that Mons. Aimen,(dd) who 

 had shown that the caries was owing to the seeds being contaminated by situa- 

 tion (cariem oriri ex seminibus situ foedatis)* had promised to inquire into the 

 causes of the spurring of rye. 



2° In what manner does the spurred rye produce its deleterious effects? In 

 answer to this question, he remarks, that there are many vegetable poisons, 

 whose mode of operation we do not understand, and that the secale cornutum 

 is one of these. It has an acrid, nauseous taste, in common with many other 

 deadly poisons. This vitiated rye seems to infect the humors with a poisonous 

 taint, which either irritates the nerves so as to excite spasms, or corrupts the 

 blood, and thereby produces gangrene. 



3° In what way does the nigella prove hurtful ? It is an acrid, viscid poison ; 

 and if a person walks barefooted in fields covered with the nigella, his feet and 

 legs will be ulcerated, (ee) 



(bb, cc) Sat. Med. Siles. & Mtiller as before quoted, 

 (dd) Mem. presentes, &c. Tom. III. p. 68. 



* i. e. contaminated by mucor (moisissure) in the soil, in ■which the seeds are planted, as Mons. 

 Aimen represents. 



(ce) Langius as before quoted. 



