118 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
researches to discover the noxious qualities of ergotised oats 
have been unsuccessful. In the description of the epidemic in 
Silesia, 1722, we read that the King of Prussia ordered the 
ergoted rye to be exchanged for some that was not diseased, 
as the former, as usual, had affected the health of the horses 
and pigs (Hecker). The convulsive ergotism reappeared in 
Silesia and Bohemia, in 1736. Soring, its historian, remarks 
that it is known and confirmed by experiments, that ergotised 
rye caused sickness both in fowls and mammals. When we 
find that domestic animals suffer during the prevalence of 
epidemics we may come positively to the conclusion that 
there is an abundance of ergot, and we may likewise arrive at 
the violence of its effects. From 1765 to 1769 the ergot 
was very abundant in Sweden amongst rye and barley. The 
epidemics which supervened were attributed by Linnseus 
to the grains of the Raphaniis^raphanistrum, from whence 
the name of raphania is derived, which is still applied in 
Scandinavia to the convulsive form of ergotism. Walilin, 
after having demonstrated the innoxiousness of the grain of 
the raphanus, observes that there is no reason why the ergot 
should not be accused instead of it, when in the course of 
an epidemic domestic animals, such as fowls, pigs, &c., present 
symptoms similar to those in the human subject. This passage 
tends to prove that not only do domestic animals contract 
convulsive ergotism, but also that the ergot of barley is as 
dangerous as that of rye. This is moreover confirmed by 
Betzius, when he says that beer brewed from ergoted barley 
has caused convulsive ergotism to those who drank it in 
quantity. In Hesse it has been often ascertained, to wit, in 
1770, that the ears of barley contained as many if not more 
elongated black grains than the rye. In our time, 1856, the 
same remark has been made by T. O. Heusinger. Traub, 
who has left a very valuable account of the epidemic of 1770, 
which extended greatly over the kingdom of Hanover, says 
that as far as he was able to ascertain and collect facts by per¬ 
sonal observation, that only one pig was affected in the district 
in which he travelled, and that horses were fed on bread made 
of ergoted rye with impunity; that beasts which were fed on 
the meal suffered no inconvenience, though they ate it with 
repugnance; and that sheep and dogs were also free from the 
disease, except in the small village of Lolie, where seven sheep 
died after having presented all the symptoms of the convulsive 
form of ergotism. These animals had been allowed to run on 
the stubbles where rye had been gathered in very hot and dry 
weather, and much of the grain had fallen out. Traub did 
not meet with a single case of abortion, though Soring and 
