- 5 - • 

 He fotm-?. also that a sanrpls of S'estuca had 3700, one of i^oa 5600, one Of HOlcv 

 500 and t/o seed saroles of Agiostis alba had 2500 and 2700 sclerotia per 

 poimd respectively. I'ot a fe^7 casos havo occurred (79), especially in Irelar 

 c-jr-.d the United States, -.here h?.y -as fovmd to contain one eighth of its vi^eight 

 of ergot. Codsayiie (42; did j:.ot find one out of over 100 sarrples of rye gras; 

 in llzv.s.xja.tu district, Few Zealand, which vas free from ergot. liost of then 

 had not moie tlxssn. 2 per cent bv weight, hut samples containing as nuch as 30 

 per cent hs-ve been seen by him. It is heavier than the i^re grass seed and so 

 nalces the pxice of t>-e seed higher. 



The losa to the farmer due to feeding grains s,r.d hay containing ergot 

 n^ay also becoEe consider?.blc under certain conditions^ Ver--- little is l^no^j-m., 

 ho- 'ever, concerning the axict loss in stock fed on ergotized hs.y s:o.d grains. 

 One case is lepoxted in 'England v/iiere a Shropshire breeder lost 11200 in three 

 ye^.rs because of tlie pievalence of ergot in his fields. During the -.vinter of 

 1901 th'3 loss ox live stoclc from eating ergotized grain was very great in n-any 

 counties in Nebraska. Losses of ca.ttle a,nd horses in sinall numbers due to 

 eating of ergotized h^^f or gra,in have been reported froi-i various parts of this 

 and other coun.trios. 



HISTORY 



Eigot is one of the oldest Imovm plant diseases. Its early history 

 is connected "v7ith v^pidcmics anong bofe people and aniii>als. As early as 

 Caesar's and Galen' s"*" time v;e fii^d records of such epideiaics of huiran disea-se 

 ■-hich -'ere attributed to poisonous irrpurities of gra'ins. Knowing no-,r that 

 crt'Ot poss0£.-3ss vj-y }.arl:ed to:::ic pioperties, we are lead to think that such 

 iV'Wuvitios ;erQ due, at least in :?s-rt, to the presence of ergot. .Mso it 

 seens probable that the epideinics recorded d^iring tlie middle ages as "Ignis 

 sacer" /eio ..t l^ast partly due to poisoning caused bv eating ergotized food. 



(]_ physician and medical writer. A. D. 130-200 ? 



