67/8 PARTURITION. 
Thefe cautions of honeft Richard Jonas in 1540, are 
quite applicable to 1820. 
Ergot of rye, or /purred rye as it is called, has been 
ftrongly recommended by fome eminent accoucheurs in 
America, as having a very decided effeCt in exciting 
and ftrengthening the aftion of the uterus during pro¬ 
tracted labour; and, according to Mr. Oliver Prefcott, 
of the Maffachufetts Medical Society, it is endued with 
a lingular and valuable property, denied to every other 
medicine with which we are acquainted—that of ope¬ 
rating exclufively upon the uterus. 
This production is generated by a peculiar difeafe 
which occafionally affedts the grains of rye ; and is one 
of the four difeafes of plants enumerated by Linnaeus, 
and by him denominated claims. The Americans term 
this produdtion Secale cornutum, or horned rye. This 
difeafe very often attacks the rye in France; and, in fuch 
feafons as are very rnoift, it is occafionally feen in Great 
Britain and other parts of Europe. The rye in America 
alfo is fo liable to the fame difeafe, that in the new' fet- 
tlements there is always more or lefs of it to be found ; 
but it is more rarely to be difcovered on fields that have 
been kept in a date of conftant cultivation for a conli- 
derable number of years. 
The earlieft account of this difeafed rye is probably 
that of M. Dodart, in 1676 ; after which it does not feem 
to have been noticed till the abbe Tefiier read a memoir 
upon it before the Royal Medical Society at Paris in 
1776. This difeafed grain, called ergot, is found in the 
ear of the rye in greater or lels quantity, according to 
the feafon, and its fituation. Its form is ordinarily 
crooked and long ; it projedts much from the glume ; is 
larger in the middle than at the extremities, which are 
fometimes blunt, and fometimes pointed. It is feldom 
round in its whole length, there being generally three 
angles, and certain longitudinal lines extending from 
one end to the other. In many grains, particularly the 
largeft, there are fmall cavities, fuppofed by fome to be 
occafioned by infedls, by others by the fun. Its external 
colour is violet of different degrees of intenfity, which 
enclofes a dull white fubftance of a firm confidence, from 
which the external coat does not feparate itfelf even after 
long boiling. A grain of ergot breaks fhort, like a dry 
almond, and has nothing difagreeable either in its odour 
or tafte ; the grains are of different fize, and vary in their 
length. Some are lefs than the grains of rye themfelves, 
while others are eighteen or nineteen lines in length, 
and two or three in thicknefs; but the length is more 
ufually ten or twelve lines. Sometimes they are fhort, 
and at the fame time large; but thefe are not of an or¬ 
dinary form. When the ergot is large, there are gene¬ 
rally but few' upon an ear, and the grains of rye, on the 
fame ear, are fine and healthy, and the whole plant vi¬ 
gorous ; on the contrary, w'hen the grains of ergot are 
fmall, there are many on an ear, and the fralk is lefs 
drong and thrifty. Thereare commonly found fourorfive 
of thefe grains upon one ear, frequently ten or twelve, and 
fometimes even twenty. The grains of rye in thofe ears 
which have many ergots are never good, but are fiirunk, 
and covered at their fuperior extremity with a black 
powder. This production, if expofed to the air, dries 
readily, and becomes lefs in fize, and very light. A 
meafure of it, that holds fourteen pounds of rye, will 
weigh but nine pounds. It is occafionally found on 
•wheat; but on the ears of this grain it is always fhort, 
though thick and well-nourifhed ; the quantity, how¬ 
ever, produced by this plant is very inconfiderable. 
Thefe grains, if planted, will not vegetate, the germ 
being dellroyed. Winter and fpring rye are, as far as 
'has been obferved, equally liable to this difeafe. 
The foil and climate about Orleans are fo peculiarly 
adapted to the growth of this fubftance, that it is faid 
to produce more of it than all France befides ; for, in 
fome years, not lefs than one-fourth of all the grain 
raifed in that province is ergoted. In this diltriCt and 
its vicinity, there has, at different periods, prevailed 
among the peafants, a very malignant and mortal difeafe, 
which is characterized by a dry gangrene in fome one of 
the extremities, fometimes in all of them, which has 
been generally afcribed to their living upon bread made 
of the ergoted rye. It has alfo been accufed of caufing 
the fpotted fever. See London Med. and Phyf. Journal, 
vol. xxxvi. p. 474. 
In France, many experiments have been made on 
animals, to prove its malignant effeCls; and numerous 
communications have been publifhed, fliovving its 
noxious properties. But it had never been confidered, 
by any of thofe writers, as capable of fubferving any me¬ 
dicinal or other ufeful purpofe. 
The firft information the public received, from a 
fource entitled to credence, that this production was, 
in reality, endued with fuch an unexampled property, 
was through the medium of the New-York Medical Re- 
pofitcry, vol. ii. by a letter from Dr. J. Stearns to Dr. 
Akerly. In this communication Dr. Stearns delignates 
it by the appellation of pulvis parturiens. Very foon 
after this publication, the exhibition of it began to 
prevail in America. Dr. Bigelow fays, “It is now af- 
certained, by the experience of a number of years, that 
the fpurred rye given to parturient women has an une¬ 
quivocal effeCt in increafing the force of the uterine pains 
and haftening the delivery of the child. This effeCt it 
fometimes fails to produce ; but its failures are not more 
frequent than thofe to which almoft any other article 
in the materia medica is liable. When given premature¬ 
ly, or under improper circtimftances, it has proved in¬ 
jurious to the mother, and fti 11 more frequently to the 
offspring. When adminiftered at too early a ftage, or 
while confiderable obftacles to delivery exift, it creates 
unneceffary fuffering to the mother, and endangers the 
child’s life. The principal circumftances that contra-in¬ 
dicate its ufe, are—earlinefs of the ftage, rigidity of the 
foft parts, any unfavourable conformation, or any pre- 
fentation that requires changing.” 
This, and fome other accounts of the virtues of the 
ergot of rye, made Dr. Merriman anxious to procure 
fome for the purpofe of experiment; but, though he en¬ 
quired for it, of many corn-dealers, phyfic.al-herb-men, 
&c. he never had the good fortune to get any, till. Mr. 
Henry Davies, of Conduit-ftreet, furgeon and leShirer 
on midwifery, gave him fome, which he had received from 
Dr. Bibby, of New York, who fent at the fame time a 
letter, from which the following are extracts. “ The 
ergot, or fpurred rye, has been much ufed in dif¬ 
ferent parts oF America and France, in cafes of pro¬ 
tracted labour, from a want of uterine aClion. It is 
given in infufion. A drachm, infilled in three or four 
ounces of boiling water for ten or fifteen minutes, is the 
ufual dofe. Should pain not come on in half an hour, 
it may be repeated. The period for its exhibition is 
when the head of the foetus has paffed the brim of the 
pelvis, anu would protrude the external part during a 
pain. The infufion is given at this period, with the 
happieft effeCts : at any previous period, by increafing 
uterine aCtion, the life of the child will be almoft cer¬ 
tainly facrificed.” A moil: extraordinary circumftance 
alfo is noted, that where the fcetus has been fome time 
dead, and putrefaction to any extent taken place, the 
remedy is altogether inert. In no cafe where it has been 
ufed has hemorrhage occurred ; and in natural labour, 
when hemorrhage does occur, it has been given with 
great advantage. 
A few cafes, fome occurring in his own practice, and 
others communicated by friends, have been added by Dr. 
Merriman; and, upon the whole, they are certainly in 
favour of the exhibition of this molt aCtive and power¬ 
ful remedy. But it has been fuggefted by a writer in the 
New-England Journal of Medicine and Surgery, that the 
death of the infant is a more frequent occurrence, in 
cafes in which the ergot has been employed, than where 
