155 



rent palsy, followed by tumours on various parts of the body, gangrene, 

 and ultimate dropping off of the toes. According to the observations 

 of M. Tessier and others who have bestowed much pains in investi- 

 gating this subject, it appears that the natural instinct of most animals 

 leads them to refuse diseased grain, either alone, or mingled in any 

 appreciable quantity with their accustomed food, rendering its adminis- 

 tration for the purpose of experiment very difficult. An exception to 

 this aversion, and liiewise to the deleterious action of ergot, has been 

 noted in oxen, sheep, and other ruminants, animals which, owing to the 

 peculiar structure of their stomachs, are less susceptible of injury from 

 vegetable poisons than those belonging to other orders of mammalia. 

 In Pereira's Elements of Materia Medica it is stated, on reliable 

 authority, that in a series of experiments on the Continent, "in 1811, 

 twenty sheep ate together nine pounds of it (spurred rye) daily for four 

 weeks without any iU effects. In another instance, twenty sheep con- 

 sumed thirteen pounds and a half daily for two months, without injury. 

 Thirty cows took together twenty-seven pounds daily, for three months, 

 with impunity ; and two fat cows, took in addition, nine pounds of 

 ergot daily, with no other obvious effect than that their milk gave a bad 

 caseous cream, which did not yield good butter." To the above re- 

 marks it may Ise added, that when administered for medicinal purposes, 

 the action of ergot, even when given apart in very large quantities, 

 often faUs altogether in the case of ruminant animals. Such exceptions, 

 therefore, lend no support to the arguments of those who entertain 

 sceptical views respecting the deleterious nature of diseased or blighted 

 grain, the use of which as food cannot be too forcibly deprecated, or 

 too sedulously avoided, a fact that will be farther demonstrated in our 

 notice of the cultivated wheat. 



Eye being little used in this country as grain, ergotism is not a 

 recognized form of disease here as it is on the Continent ; but the late 

 Dr. Willan was of opinion that many pestilential epidemics of past 

 periods were due to this cause, and among them the sweating sickness 

 in the beginning of the sixteenth century. At this time it was re- 

 marked, as recorded by ScMller, in his treatise, ' De Peste Britannica,' 

 that birds fell dead off the trees, with small abscesses under their 

 wings ; a fact mentioned by him as instancing the poisonous quality of 

 the air at the time, but which, as the Doctor obsenred, was more pro- 

 bably occasioned by the damaged grain taken as food. 



The medicinal use of ergot is far from being inconsiderable, and it 

 is imported hither from France, Germany, and America. The retail 

 price varies, according to supply and demand, from ten to twenty 

 shillings per ounce ; hence it has been remarked that if a pound were 

 collected from a field of rye, it would be worth more than the produce 

 in sound grain from an acre of the best land. The conspicuous cha- 

 racter of the spurred grain, arising from its length standing out beyond 

 the ear, and blueish-black hue, would render such collection very 

 easy. 



