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of minute species of fungi ; and though ergot is less frequent in its 

 attacks upon it than is the case with the last-mentioned grain, several 

 other equally destructive members of the class, known by the more 

 lamiliar names of smut, rust, and mildew, seem always ready to avail 

 themselves of every opportunity, that weakness engendered by adverse 

 season or circumstances presents. Straw, foliage, husk, and grain 

 afford in turn a subject, for their insidious depredations, which are 

 always more or less injurious, not to the quantity alone of the crop, 

 but to its nutritive and healthful quality. Instances of this deteriora- 

 tion are shown in the analyses of our agricultural chemists, as in that 

 of blighted wheat, grown in 1804, by Sir H. Davy, which presented 

 the average quantity of 955 parts of nutritive matter in the 1,000 re- 

 duced to 650, while a sample of mildewed wheat, in 1806, yielded only 

 210 in the 1,000. The consequence of using such wheat as food, 

 especially the last-mentioned, would, of course, be a step toward star- 

 vation, even though no greater evU resulted. It is, however, well 

 known to be highly prejudicial to health ; and the higher standard of 

 living among the poorer classes of our population, compared with those 

 of some continental countries, is the only cause of their exemption from 

 the dreadful disease mentioned above, as resulting from the use of bad 

 rye. That such disease might occasionally prevail among them here 

 from similar causes, under a more restricted form of diet, is evident 

 from a record in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1762. 

 The case in question occurred in the village of Wallisham, about fifteen 

 or sixteen miles from Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, and the report of it 

 was forwarded to the Royal Society by Dr. WoUaston, attested by the 

 Rev. Mr. Bone, the curate of the parish, and is, abridged, as follows : — 

 Some of the wheat belonging to a farmer in the neighbourhood, being 

 laid or beaten down by bad weather, and the grain much damaged in 

 consequence, was collected and threshed apart from the remainder. 

 Being unfit for the market, it was sold at a low price to any of the 

 farm-labourers, and other people of the village who might be inclined 

 to purchase. The sale of this corn commenced about Christmas, and 

 to one poor family, whose chief, or possibly sole, support it was for 

 some time, the result was most alarming and unparalleled. It appears 

 that the consumption of the clog-wheat or rivets, as it is termed, by the 

 father mother, and five children, was about two bushels in the fort- 

 night ; the same being eaten in the form of bread and puddings, both 

 of them very indifferent in quality. But to poverty, cheapness, and 

 sufficiency of food are always irresistible inducements, and this un- 

 wholesome fare was continued, without iatermission, until the mother 

 and her children were attacked, within a very few days of each other, 

 with gangrenous ergotism. The first indication of the disease, intense 

 pains in the lower limbs, occurred on the 10th of January, which were 

 probably mistaken for rheumatism ; and when these subsided within the 

 course of the week, numbness and insensibility of the parts succeeded, 

 terminating in mortification. The condition of the family, at the time 

 Dr. WoUaston made his report to the society, is here subjoined :— 



" Mary, the mother, aged forty. Right foot off at the ankle ; left 

 leg mortified, a mere bone, but not off. 



