154 



its appearance on different parts of the Continent, as in France, Swit- 

 zerland, Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia, Denmark, and Sweden, the symp- 

 toms and results being in aU instances more or less corresponding. 

 The district of Sologne, in France, situated between the rivers Loire 

 and Cher, where the subsoil is a cold, retentive clay, seems to have 

 been the most frequent scene of its disastrous recurrence. The soil 

 there is described as being so poor, that, although it is allowed to lie 

 fallow every third season, it becomes completely exhausted at the end 

 of ten or twelve years at farthest, so that the farmers are compelled to 

 let it remain a long while in the state of pasture, before it will again 

 bear corn ; while it is at the same time so wet, that, to avoid the 

 rotting of the seed-corn, they are obliged to sow it on the tops of 

 furrows a foot high. These are the conditions most favourable to the 

 production of ergot, which seldom attacks the grain, unless in exces- 

 sively wet seasons, in countries where an advanced system of agri- 

 culture is in practice, and the land consequently well-drained. 



As occurs in regard to the origin of those destructive blights which 

 have effected the potato and grape in our own times, considerable 

 diversity of opinion exists respecting the source of that now before us ; 

 some attributing the formation of ergot to the growth of a parasitic 

 fungus, and others to a mere alteration of the grain itself by disease. 

 Both of these hypotheses are probably equally entitled to our consider- 

 ation ; a fungoid production is unquestionably present, while the grains 

 of ergot are in their early stages of development, crowned with the 

 feathered stigmas, evincing that they are at that time the immature 

 ovaries of the rye flowers. Admitting, nay, being capable of demon- 

 strating both these facts, we are justified in assuming that the general 

 circumstances requisite for fungus growth involving the presence of 

 diseased or decomposing organic matter, imply that the development 

 of the Sphacelia segetum, or Spermo'edia clavus, as the ergot fungus is 

 styled by botanists, is a result of previous disturbance in the healthy 

 functions of the ovary in which it takes place, and not the primary 

 cause of the disorder. 



In all records concerning the deleterious action of ergot, the grain so 

 affected seems to have been eaten in considerable quantity, or as daily 

 food, for weeks and even months successively. The consequences, thougli 

 differing in dififerent constitutions, are chiefly correspondent with those 

 noticed in our preceding paragraph, as characterizing the pestilence in the 

 year 1089 ; a disorder now known among medical writers and practi- 

 tioners as gangrena ustilaginea, or dry gangrene. It commences with 

 pain in the extremities of the limbs, which soon become insensible and 

 cold to the touch, eventually shrivelling and drying up as they assume 

 a black appearance ; the decay gradually extends towards the body, 

 the parts affected separating and dropping off in succession. These 

 fearful results, due to the poisonous quality of the fungus, are doubtless 

 enhanced by deficiency of nutriment in the rest of the grain, not pro- 

 perly matured in the wet seasons favourable to the production of ergot. 

 Similar effects to the above have been produced upon pigs, fowls, and 

 many others of the lower animals, fed on spurred corn by different 

 experimentalists ; the first symptoms induced being giddiness or appa- 



