746 FUNGI. 



closely allied to cane sugar, and probably identical with Trehalose (see 

 p. 417). My cose crystallizes in rhombic octohedra, having the com- 

 position C^'H~0" + 2H^0. Mitscherlich obtained of it about one-tenth 

 per cent. It appears that the sugar exuded in the first stage of growth 

 of the fungus, — the so-called rye honey-deiu, — is in its principal charac- 

 ters different from mycose. Instead of the latter, Mitscherlich, as well 

 as Fiedler and Ludwig, sometimes obtained from ergot Mannite. 



Schoonbroodt also found in ergot Lactic Acid. Several other 

 chemists have further proved the presence of acetic and formic acids. 



Starch is entirely wanting in ergot at all times. The drug yields 

 about 3 per cent, of nitrogen, corresponding probably to a large amount 

 of albuminoid matter. Ganser, however, obtained only 3' 2 per cent, of 

 albumin soluble in water. 



When ergot or its alcoholic extract is treated V7ith an alkali it 

 yields, as products of the decomposition of the albuminoid matters, 

 ammonia or ammonia-bases, — according to Ludwig and Stahl, Methy- 

 lamine, — according to others, Trimethylamine. Manassewitz, as well 

 as Wenzell, state that phosphate of trimethylamine is present in an 

 aqueous extract of ergot, but Ganser ascertained that no such base 

 'pre-exists in ergot. We have found that the crystals which abound in 

 the extract, after it has been kept for some time, are an acid phosphate 

 of sodium and ammonium with a small proportion of sulphate.^ 



Production and Commerce — Ergot of rye is to be met with in 

 all the countries producing cereals ; we have seen it in the high valleys 

 of the Alps, and Schiibeler states that it grows in Norway, as far north 

 as 60° N. lat. 



The drug is chiefly imported into London from Vigo in Spain and 

 from Teneriffe ; it is also shipped from Hamburg and France. Dr. de 

 Lanessan, writing to one of us from Vigo in 1872, remarks that vast 

 quantities of rye are grown in Galicia, and that owing to the humidity 

 of the climate the grain is extensively ergotized, — in fact the parasite 

 is present in one ear out of every three. At the time of harvest the 

 ergots are picked out, and the rye is thus rendered fit for food. 



Southern and Central Russia furnish considerable supplies of the 

 drug. In the central parts of Europe, ergot does not everywhere occur 

 in sufficient abundance to be collected, and it greatly diminishes as the 

 state of agriculture improves. We have noticed that ergot from 

 Odessa was of a slaty hue and in much smaller grains than that from 

 Spain. 



Uses — Ergot is principally used on account of its specific action on 

 the uterus in parturition. 



Other Varieties of Ergot — Ergot of Wheat (Triticum vulgare), 

 which is in shorter and thicker ergots than that of rye, is picked out 

 by hand in some parts of Italy and France, from grain intended to be 

 used for the manufacture of vermicelli and other pastes ; and such ergot 

 is sold to druggists. Carbonneaux Le Perdriel ^ has endeavoured to show 



^ The red colour of an alcoholic solution with carbon bisulphide may also be recom- 



may serve for the detection of small quan- mended as a test, inasmuch as good cereal 



tities of ergot in flour. The reaction with grains contain but a very small percentage 



potash, and evolution of the characteristic of fat. 



odour of herring brine may assist in the "^ De V Ergot de Froment et de ses propri6t4s 



same object. Extraction of the fatty oil mM. (thfese) MontpeUier, 1862. 



