FUNG. 403 
the fungus often lurks in the shaded grasses, be- 
come diseased. Some places are so notorious for 
casualties of this kind connected with them, whose 
cause is not suspected, that owners of animals are 
afraid to allow them to be at large. The necessity 
of carefully picking out the ergoted grains when- 
ever they are perceived in samples of wheat, cannot 
be too strongly or frequently impressed upon the 
farmer ; and wherever gangrenous diseases or uter- 
ine derangements prevail, search should be made for 
it in the neighbourhood, with a view to prevention. 
This curious disease, upon which more has been 
written by medical and botanical authors than 
upon almost any other vegetable production, 
affords one of the most extraordinary examples, 
within the whole range of physiology, of a natural 
- chemical transmutation ; the nutritious grain being 
metamorphosed, by the agency of a fungus, into a 
hard horny substance, endowed with properties 
the very reverse of its original wholesomeness, and 
ministering suffering and death instead of life and 
strength to those who partake of it. Strange to 
say, however, the children in some parts of the 
north of Europe eat with impunity immense quan- 
tities of this diseased rye, under the name of St. 
John’s Bread. This is an extraordinary instance 
of the uncertain effects of the same species of 
fungi upon the human constitution, and the wide 
