FOLD OUT 



BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 243 



through Landee, Flanders, and Artois. The ergot formed a third of the threshed rye ; 

 animals •which were fed upon it contracted the same gangrenous accidents as man 

 (Salerne). 



Toward the last third of the eighteenth century the epidemics of ergotism were 

 do longer so frequent ; the perfection of agriculture may claim a part ha this happy 

 result, hut the greater part is incontestably due to the generalization of the culture 

 of the potato in the North and of maize in the .South. In spite of these alimentary 

 guarantees ergotism was not extinguished. In the present century it was mentioned 

 by Courhaut and Bordot, in 1855; Barrier observed the gangrenous form in the de- 

 partments of Isere, Loire, llaute-Loire, Ardeche, and Rhone. Ergotism has reap- 

 peared in Russia, Finland, Sweden, and some cantons of Germany. In the epidemic 

 described by Wagner (18ol) the hogs which ate ergo ted rye presented the same symp- 

 toms of the disease as the human species, and Helm saw in Pomerauia 12 hogs which, 

 a few hours after having consumed a ration of rye mixed with ergot, were taken with 

 vertigo and convulsions. They moaned and uttered anxious cries ; the posterior parts 

 were paralyzed, and the animals manifested their sufferings by singular contortions 

 The last epidemic occurred in 1655; it appeared in Hesse, and coucurred with that 

 mentioned in France by Barrier. 



A peculiarity worth}- of remark was connected with the Hessian epidemic; the 

 younger Heusinger, who recorded it, says that his father,*profe.ssof" at the University of 

 Narbourg, who was charged by the Government to examine the harvests of the year, 

 accomplished his mission before the threshing. In the sheaves of the cereal he found 

 a large quantity of Bromuts secaUnus [common chess or cheat] rich in ergot, though 

 the heads of the rye were exempt from it ; and as this ergot presents all the physical 

 characters belonging to that of rye, it becomes certain that this cereal is not always 

 to be blamed as much as has been generally believed. Rye harvested on lauds badly 

 cultivated was infested with Bromus : when properly cultivated but little was pro- 

 duced. This fact demonstrates the great influence of agricultural progress on the 

 extension of ergotism and its cause. In countries where agriculture is in an advanced 

 condition, as in Belgium, ergotism, either in the gangrenous or convulsive form, is 

 unknown. The observation of Heusinger is not the only one; in two communes of 

 the principality of Waldeck the ergot of chess also caused an epidemic (Rcerig). 



This fact is not without interest for the veterinarian, since straw makes up part of 

 the food of the domesticated herbivora, and the plants mixed in the sheaves, with the 

 nature or their productions, merits more attention than is generally bestowed upon 

 it. During the continuance of the epidemic in Hesse, T. O. Heusinger collected in- 

 formation in regard to the diseases which affected domestic animals. He learned that 

 in the commune of Roda, where the most people suffered, and where convulsive 

 ergotism was most violent, the sheep presented symptoms which could be referred 

 to poisoning by ergot with the more reason as these animals were fed with rye straw 

 and received the screenings of the grain. The inhabitants complained of the great 

 mortality among the sheep ; the shepherds reported that several had jumped the in- 

 cisures of the pastures, that they were then taken with convulsions and turning, in 

 a circle had dropped dead as if thuuderstricken. Abortions were frequent, as also 

 early parturitions; the greater part of the lambs died. 



Doctor Randall reports that in the State of Nev: York a disease appears each win- 

 ter among the cattle, which begins by a slight swelling of the lower parts of the r>os- 

 terior limbs, with stiffness of the joints. This affection, which has the appearance 

 of being very mild, invariably terminates by dry gangrene of the parts first involved, 

 which freeze after the mortification. In the severe climate of New York the animals 

 winter in the fields, and the farmers attribute the disease to freezing. Randall ob- 

 serves that if this were the real cause a circular line of demarkation would not divide 

 the dead and living parts as regularly as happens in this disease, and, finally, that 

 the external appendages, less protected against the cold than the limbs when lying, 

 should freeze sooner. He adds, and it is the opinion of several other physicians, that 

 the affection is no other than gangrenous ergotism. Indeed the Poa pratenais is rich 

 in ergot, and as it does not produce each year an equal quantity, Randall thinks that 

 the cases more or less frequent correspond to the abundance of ergot. (Veterinarian, 



If, in presence of the facts enumerated, we cannot fail to recognize the existence of 

 gangrenous and convulsive ergotism with animals, we must also admit that these 

 facts are neither so precise nor have the rigorous correlation of cause and effect which 

 is desirable in pathology ; they do not even give the elements for a symptomatic table. 

 Randall furnishes in this connection some important information: it agrees with 

 that contained in the interesting observation of Decoste. (Bee., 1848.) These mate- 

 rials joined to the phenomena studied with animals in experiments permit us to 

 trace the symptoms of gangrenous and convulsive ergotism. 



Mr. Fleming-, in his work entitled Animal Plagues, has compiled a 

 considerable number of references to epidemics and epizootics of ergot- 



