On the Diseases of Wheat 



15 



rise to the production of peculiar excrescences termed galls. 

 The oak apple is an example ; so is the useful and important 

 article of commerce,, the common nut-galls, which are also ob- 

 tained from oaks. It has been supposed that the Ergot might 

 be a production of a similar kind ; or else, that it may be occa- 

 sioned by the action of a parasitic fungus ; or even, that it was 

 itself a fungus: and it has, accordingly, been sometimes classed in 

 systematic works with true fungi. Mr. Bauer, in the 18th vol. of 

 the Linnean Transactions, fully confirms the opinion of those who 

 consider the Ergot to be a monstrous deyelopment of the seed of 

 corn, and other species of the grass tribe ; and he has given most 

 accurate drawings of this singular production, in all its stages of 

 growth. He objects, as I conceive rightly, to the idea of its being 

 produced by the action of a certain minute fungus, which is found 

 equally on plants not producing the Ergot, as on those that do so ; 

 but an opposite opinion is maintained by high authorities. Be 

 the cause of its production what it may, the Ergot is a monstrous 

 state of the seed, in which the embryo, and particularly one part 

 of it, is preternaturally enlarged, protrudes beyond the chaff, and 

 often assumes a curved form somewhat resembling a cock"s-spur 

 (from whence the name of Ergot, which is of French extraction). 

 It is black superficially, and of a spongy texture internally: contain- 

 ing much oily matter, so that it will burn like an almond when 

 lighted at a candle. This production affords us a remarkable, but 

 not uncommon example, of how slight an alteration in the propor- 

 tions in which certain elements are combined, may make a material 

 difference in the properties of the same body. The few elementary 

 principles which form flour, the very staff of life, are in some way 

 so differently combined in this particular state of the grain from 

 whence flour is obtained, that certain animals cannot continue to 

 eat it for many days together, even in comparatively small quantities, 

 without becoming diseased, and probablv d\-ing from its effects. 

 The experiments which have been undertaken in order to prove this 

 are unexceptionable of their kind, but painful to read ; and ha\*ing 

 once been made, with the care and caution detailed bv the Abbe 

 Tessier, and others, we may hope that it will never be considered 

 advisable to repeat them wantonly. They were made upon various 

 animals, ducks, fowls, turkeys, pigs, &c. Such repugnance had 

 these animals to the Ergot, that they preferred starvation to volun- 

 tarily partaking of it, even when it was mixed in small proportions 

 only with good flour. When compelled to swallow it, thev soon 

 sickened, their limbs became inflamed, and their bodies gangrenous 

 in various parts, and sometimes the flesh sloughed off, and death 

 invariably ensued. In the case of a duck which was forcibly fed 

 with flour mixed with the powder of Ergot, forming a seventeenth 

 portion of the whole compound, drops of blackish blood oozed 



