- 6 - 

 Although the true nature of ergot was not taiovoa "by early writers, 

 Its occurrence and use as a drug is mentioned by iiany of them. Lonicer, 

 ahout the middle of the si3:teenth century, mentions its specific use; Thalius 

 applied the name of "ad sistendum sangiuneum''; Bauhin used the naiie of Secale 

 luicurians; DeCandolle calle it Sclerotium clavus . Pleigk (1795) noted ergot 

 on rye and several grasses and described it as a degenerated kernel. This 

 conception of ergot was prevalent for some t;ime ar.d was supported strongly 

 even up to the middle of tlie nineteenth century by F^e aaid Phdbus (195). They 

 first held that the ergot sclerotium does not have any spores or asci, but con- 

 tains abnornelly developed starch grains and that its external covering con- 

 sists of tho integument of the rye kernel. Ph^bus, on. the contrary, consider- 

 ed the contents of the sclerotium asncrdified albunien, the outer layer being 

 the ''shell'' of the komel. Others, as Bemhard, WilldenoW, and Link, express- 

 ed.' similar interpretations, Bose, Rosier, and DeBomare (.161) attributed er- 

 got to a superabundance of nutritive material, Geoffray antfL DeJussieu regard- 

 ed it as "a rosult of laclc of equilibrium in the processes of fertilization." 

 According to Fries' first conception, the sclerotia on the plaoit tissue corres- 

 pond to tl-o "indulations" on the animal tissue. '^'o Raspoil (2?06) ergot is the 

 product of the presence of a "vibrion'"'. According to Karl tMiller (131; ergot 

 is the pathologically modified kernel, which mx)dification is broxight about by 

 the failure of the flov/er to become fertilized. Schleiden (129) considered 

 tlie fomiation ©f ergot sclerotia as an abnorirelity in cell structui'e brought 

 ■about "Ij,y ii proper nutrition. It \jSis thought also tha.t ergot was formed as a 

 result of -.-oundirig of tlie plant heads or the young fruit through the sting of 

 cort-.in thrips (89; or tho biting of a beetle, Rhagjoaych a melanura Fab'^o. 

 v/hich is v^rv- corr on in tlae field at the time of whe^-t blossoming (4) . 

 St.~ndinger (258j considered it as a'-l^roduct ein.er i./idern-atiirlichen Gahrung in 



