740 FUNGI. 



flour used in making the grout or grain soup. Occasionally it is taken 

 boiled in milk. It is not given, as has been asserted, to domestic 

 animals. 



An interesting application of Iceland moss has recently been tried 

 in Sweden. Sten-Stenberg treats it with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, 

 when 72 per cent, of grape sugar are formed, which may be converted 

 into alcohol.^ 



FUNGI. 



SECALE CORNUTUM. 



Ergota; Ergot of Rye, ^ Spurred Eye; F. Seigle ergots ; G. Mutterkorn. 



Botanical Origin — Claviceps purpurea Tulasne, a fungus of the 

 order Pyrenomycetes, of which ergot is an immature form, it being the 

 sclerotium (termed in the British Pharmacopoeia compact mycelium 

 or spawn) developed within the paleae of numerous plants of the order 

 Graminece. 



Ergot is obtained almost exclusively from rye, Secale cereale L. ; 

 but the same fungus is produced on grasses belonging to many other 

 genera, as AgropyruTn, Alopecurus, Atnmopliila, Anthoxantlium, 

 Arrhenatherum, Avena, Brachypodium, Calamagrostis, Dactylis, 

 Glyceria, Hordeum, Lolium, Poa, and Triticum. Other organisms of 

 diverse form, but of doubtful specific distinctness, are developed in 

 Molinia, Oryza, Phragmites, and other grasses. In the order CyperacecB 

 (e.g., Scirpus), peculiar ergots are known. 



History — Although it is hardly possible that so singular a produc- 

 tion as ergot should be unnoticed in the writings of the classical authors, 

 we believe no undoubted reference to it has been discovered.^ The 

 earliest date under which we find ergot mentioned on account of its 

 obstetric virtues is towards the middle of the 16th century, by Adam 

 Lonicer of Frankfort, who describes its appearance in the ears of rye, 

 and adds that it is regarded by women to be of remarkable and certain 

 efiicacy.* It is also very clearly described in the writings of Johannes 

 Thalius, who speaks of it as used " ad 'sistendum sanguinem." * In 

 the next century it was noticed by Caspar Bauhin, who termed it 

 Secale luxurians,^ and by the English botanist Bay,'' with allusion to 

 its medicinal properties. 



Bathlaw, a Dutch accoucheur, employed ergot in 1747. Thirty 

 years later Desgranges of Lyons prescribed it with success ; but its 

 peculiar and important properties were hardly allowed until the com- 

 mencement of the present century, when Dr. Stearns of New York 

 succeeded in gaining for them fuller recognition.* Ergot of rye was 

 not, however, admitted into the London Pharmacopoeia until 1836.® 



1 Dingler's Polytechnkches Journal, 197 ^ Pinax Theatri Botanid, Basil. 1623. 23. 



(1870) 177 ; also Chemisches Centralblatt, '' Hist. Plant, ii. (1693) 1241. 



1870. 607. * StilM, TJierapeutics and Mat. Med. ii. 



* From the French ergot, anciently argot, (1868) 609. 



a cock's spur. " From 1825 to 1828 the wholesale price 



'* Consult Pliny's ^a<.//i«<. book 18. ch. 44. of ergot of rye in London was from 36s. to 



* Kreuterbuch, ed. 1582. 285 (not in the 50s. per lb., that is to say, from twelve to 

 edition of 1560). fifteen times its present value. 



'^ Sylva Hercynia, Francof. 1588. 47. 



