PARASITIC FUNGI AND MOULDS. 23 



the ergot of wheat should be used in medicine ; it is 

 larger, harder, and more elongated in form, and it also 

 appears to be less perishable. 



Ergot of rye, especially when powdered, strongly 

 resembles meat in smell, and only becomes unpleasant 

 when the powder is spoiled by being kept in a damp 

 place ; it then smells like rotten fish, and this is the 

 case with many other fungi. 



At first the taste is not very apparent, but it after- 

 wards produces on the pharynx a somewhat persistent 

 sense of constriction. The chief action of this drug 

 consists in producing contraction of unstriated muscu- 

 lar fibres, especially those of the uterus. Ergotine 

 and ergotinine are extracted from it, and these, which 

 are its active principles, are often employed in thera- 

 peutics in preference to raw ergot. 



In large doses ergot is a strong poison. It then 

 produces characteristic symptoms, dilatation of the 

 pupils, retardation of the circulation, vertigo, stupor, 

 and even death. 



Bread made with flour from which the ergot has 

 not been extracted may produce the grave symptoms 

 known as ergotism, and these soon become fatal unless 

 the use of such bread is discontinued. Sometimes 

 nervous symptoms predominate, and this is termed 

 convulsive ergotism ; sometimes the disease takes the 

 form of gangrene of the extremities, or gangrenous 

 ergotism, but these two forms are only two phases of 

 one and the same disease, and often occur in the same 



