240 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



is not constant ; the autopsies show that though the envelopes of the cerebro-spinal 

 axis are always congested, wholly or in part, the nervous centers themselves are quite 

 often anaemic. 



It follows from these results which are conformable to what is observed in ergotism 

 that the primitive phenomena depend upon a sedation of the sensory nervous system, 

 and this anaesthesia is succeeded by a hyperesthesia and a retardation of the circula- 

 tion. The exaltation of 1he sensibility lias not always the same seat ; this circum- 

 stance explains the variations of the symptoms and the predominant lesions of a func- 

 tional apparatus. In all cases the hyperesthesia excites reflex action, sometimes in 

 the intestinal tube (colic, vomiting, and diarrhea); at other times in the voluntary 

 muscles (contractions and convulsions) ; at still other times iu the involuntary mus- 

 cles of the vessels (gangrene). These reflex actions may be successive, simultaneous, 

 or they are developed separately and remain separa ted during the whole course of the 

 disease. With man, who can give an account of his subjective sensations, intense 

 pain precedes the contraction ; theu follows, according to the intensity of the disease, 

 convulsions varying from trembling to epileptic attacks. The over stimulation leads 

 to exhaustion, which brings a caliniu the sensitive system. Intolerable pains, which 

 arc more localized, also precede the dry gaugrene ; the patient feels in the part which 

 becomes the seat of it a cold sensation ; later, this is recognized by the thermometer 

 and to the patient it seems glacial ; the sensatiou is lost when the gangrenous effect is 

 accomx)lished. The dilatation of the vessels, followed by a narrowing of their channels 

 are phenomena which are connected with primitive anaesthesia, a secondary hyper- 

 algesia, and with reflex action, which affect the vaso-motor nerves. The rigidity and 

 congestion of the vascular tubes, the weakening of the contraction of the~heart, re- 

 tard the circulation in the extremities, favor the stagnation of the blood, and conse- 

 quently necrosis, even if the reflex phenomena are not sufficiently intense to obliter- 

 ate the channel of the afferent vessel and produce mortification by anaemia. What 

 is produced in an intense manner at one or several extremities is repeated at all the 

 periphery in gangrenous and convulsive ergotism; the lowering of the temperature 

 has no other cause than the retardation of the circulation and the reflex muscular 

 spasm. The cerebral phenomena are probably only secondary and are due to the con- 

 gestion of the brain and its envelopes ; the anaemia of this organ would also account 

 for them. It is a law that local congestions go side by side with local anaemia ; when 

 ergotism becomes chronic, the anaemia is generalized, a common result ir ill diseases 

 which are of long duration. The absence of exudations removes all idea of inflam- 

 mation, and if hepatization of the posterior lobes of the lungs has been found, par- 

 ticularly with the gallinaceans, this lesion is neither constant nor general. 



The medium dose of this agent for medicinal purposes is given by 

 Tabourin (Nouveau Traite de Nat. Med., etc., II, p. 447) as follows: Cat- 

 tle and horses, one-half to one ounce (16 to 32 grams); goats, sheep, 

 and pigs, one to two drachms (4 to 8 grams) ; dogs and cats, one-half 

 to one drachm (2 to 4 grams). Finley Dun says : A.s a parturient or 

 styptic, for the mare or cow, one-half to one ounce ; for sheep, swine, 

 and bitches, about one drachm (Yet. Medicine, p. 212). 



HISTORY OF ERGOTISM. 



Wood states that epidemics of ergotism or chronic e^gotic poisoning have been 

 recorded from time to time since the days of Galen [130 to 200. A. D.] and of Caesar 

 [B. C, 100 to 44]. (Therap. Mat. Med. and Tox., 4th ed., p. 565.) There is much 

 reason for doubt, however, in regard to the diagnosis of cases occurring before the 

 tenth century. 



Verheyen says that, "From the ninth to the thirteenth centuries several grave epi- 

 demics appeared in France. The first chroniclers who made mention of them, faithful 

 to their traditional habit, confounded them under the generic denomination of plague 

 (peste). In the tenth century these epidemics received a special name ; they were called 

 ignis sacer, arsura, claudes sen pestis igniaria. In the twelfth century the nomenclature 

 was increased with the terms ignis saneli Antonii, sancti Martialis, Beatce Virginis, ignis 

 invisibilis, seu infernalis. All these exrjressions were used to designate one and the 

 same affection, which was no other than ergotism. 



The learned historian of the epidemics of feu sacre of the Middle Ages, Professor 

 Fuchs (Das heilige Feuer im Mittelalter, Berlin, 1834), fixes the first invasion in the year 

 857. This explicit passage of the chronicle leaves no doubt in this regard. Plaga 

 magna resicarum turgentium grassaiur in popnlo et delesfabUi cos putredine comumsit, ita 

 ut membra dissolute, ante mortem deciderunt. ( Port/. 11, 230.) The epidemic of 590 

 (Greg. Tur., X, 30) that some authors refer to the feu sacre, does not appear to us to 



