BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



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number of animals. Of two ducks fed upon ergot, one, the female, died 

 in nine or ten days. It bad consumed one ounce and three drachms of 

 ergot. There was a large violet spot on the beak, the covering epider- 

 mis was raised up by a collection of dark, fetid blood. The male died 

 in fourteen days with the beak similarly affected; there was also 

 drooping of one wing which showed two regions of inflammation, one 

 in the fold and the other on the first phalanx. It had consumed 2 

 ounces and G drachms of ergot. A turkey Was fed 8 ounces 4h 

 drachms of ergot within twenty-two days. The autopsy revealed 

 inflammation about the beak, but none of the feet and wings. A pig 

 six weeks old died at the end of twenty-three days after receiving 1 

 pound and 12 ounces of ergot. The autopsy revealed swelling of the 

 four feet especially at articulations, which were a reddish violet color. 

 The ears were livid, there was gangrene of one side of the head and 

 various internal inflammatory lesions. The articulations of the feet 

 with the legs being uncovered there was seen, particularly with the pos- 

 terior limbs, a thick, black, and fetid liquid. The animal previous to 

 death had been able to support itself better on its fore than on its hind 

 limbs. A six-months' old pig died after being fed during sixty-nine 

 days upon a total of 22 pounds and G ounces of ergot. The autopsy re- 

 vealed various internal inflammatory lesions, several violet spots on 

 front and hind legs, the end of the tail dark violet, and ears livid. The 

 two first phalanges of the right anterior foot were gangrenous and dry, 

 especially near the articulations. The bones themselves were tinted 

 brown. The same parts of the left foot were gangrenous but not so far 

 advanced, as the bones were not altered. Upon each calcaneum there 

 was a livid spot, larger on one than on the other. During life there 

 was on the twentieth day a purulent discharge from two cavities in the 

 articulation of the right foot 5 these were soon covered with a crust. 

 The limb remained cold. On the forty-second day the corresponding 

 joint of the left anterior leg developed a tumor which by the fifty-eighth 

 day became an open sore. Both legs were cold and swollen, dry, in- 

 sensible, and portions of the muscles became detached. The animal 

 was no longer able to walk. 



Salerne, cited by Head, gave to a small male pig barley mixed with 

 half its weight of ergot. At the end of fifteen days the legs became red, 

 secreted a yellowish and fetid humor, the skin of the back and beneath 

 the abdomen became black in color. This food was continued for fifteen 

 days and then replaced by some free from ergot. The animal died four 

 days later; there was no gangrene of the feet. Bead fed a pig three 

 months old for fifteen days with ergoted wheat mixed with bran. 

 Gangrene seized the left ear on the seventeenth day and it dropped off. 

 The pig died two days later with convulsions. A gangrenous spot Was 

 found on the liver. (A. Tardy. Be V Ergotism, Paris, 1858.) 



Fleming, in his Manual of Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police, 

 (Vol. T, p. Go), says: "The ergot on rye, wheat, &c, has also given rise 

 to extensi ve disease in man and animals, including birds, marked by 

 convulsions, paralysis, dry gangrene of the limbs, loss of hair and horn, 

 and other strange phenomena." 



M. Tabourin, in his Nouveau Traite de Matiere Medicate He Thvrapeut- 

 ique et de Pharmacie ViUrinaires^ Paris, 18GG, gives the following de- 

 scription of the action of ergot (pp. 448 to 450) : 



The effects of ergot of rye .should be divided into medicinal and toxic. 



Medicinal effects. — The action that ergot of rye exercises on the natural surfaces and 

 on the denuded tissues has been very little studied with animals, but appears to be 

 slightly irritating; with man it has been noticed that the aqueous extract arrests 



