120 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
was commissioned by the government to examine the crops 
of that year ; he did so before they were thrashed, and found 
a large quantity of the Bromus secalinus which was very 
much ergoted, while the ears of the rye were comparatively 
free from it, and as this ergot has all the physical characters 
of the ergot of rye, we learn that the latter is not always in 
fault. The rye which was grown on indifferently cultivated 
land was infested with the Bromus, while on land on which 
more care had been bestowed it was comparatively scarce. 
This fact shows the influence which improvements in agricul¬ 
ture exert over the extinction of ergotism. In a highly culti¬ 
vated country like Belgium, ergotism, either gangrenous or 
convulsive, is unknown. The observation of Heusinger does not 
stand alone; in two villages in the principality of Waldeck the 
ergoted Bromus secalinus caused an epidemic (Roerig). These 
facts are of great interest to veterinary science, inasmuch as 
the straw of these plants is largely used as food for cattle and 
other domestic herbivora. During the prevalence of the epi¬ 
demic in Hesse, T. O. Heusinger inquired into the maladies 
which affected the domestic animals, and he learnt that in 
the commune of Roda, in which convulsive ergotism was 
very violent, sheep suffered from a sort of intoxication, which 
could only be referred to the ergot, as they had been fed on 
rye straw, and the refuse, after winnowing of the rye. The 
inhabitants complained greatly of the mortality amongst the 
sheep. The shepherds reported that many of the affected sheep 
had jumped over the fences, and had afterwards been in convul¬ 
sions, and turning over fell dead as if struck by lightning. 
Abortion was also very frequent, as well as premature partu¬ 
rition ; the majority also of the lambs died. Dr. Randall 
reports that in the State of New York there appears every 
winter a malady among neat cattle which makes its attack by 
a tumefaction of the lower parts of the hind legs, with stiff¬ 
ness of the articulations. This affection, which seems very 
benign at first, invariably terminates in a dry gangrene of the 
parts first affected. In the severe climate of New York the 
cattle remain out during the winter, and the farmers attribute 
this^aflfection^only to the cold. Randall observes that if this 
were the real cause, a circular line of demarcation w r ould not so 
regularly define the separation of the dead and living tissues, and 
moreover that the external and superior parts of the limbs during 
the decubitus would first become frozen. He adds, that it is the 
opinion of several other medical men that this affection is gan- 
grcnous|ergotism. The Poapratensis is here very rich in ergot, 
but as the quantity is not every year the same, Randall thinks 
the affection more or less frequently, corresponds with the 
