ERGOT OF RYE. 
§§ 590 , 59 1 '] 
taming it with warm alkaline water. The water may now be acidified 
and shaken up with chloroform, which will dissolve out any santonin. 
On driving off the chloroform, the residue should be again alkalised, 
dissolved in water, and acidified with hydrochloric acid, and shaken up 
with chloroform. In this way, by operating several times, it may be 
obtained very pure. Santonin may be identified by its dissolving in 
alcoholic potash to a transitory carmine-red, but the best reaction is to 
dissolve it in concentrated sulphuric acid, to which a very little water 
has been added, to warm on the'water-bath, and then to add a few drops 
of ferric chloride solution to the warm acid ; a ring of a beautiful red 
colour passing into purple surrounds each drop, and after a little time, 
on continuing the heat, the purple passes into brown. A distinctive 
reaction is also the production of “ iso-santOnin ” ; this substance is 
produced by warming santonin on the water-bath with sulphuric acid 
for a few hours, and then diluting with water ; iso-santonin is pre¬ 
cipitated, and may be crystallised from boiling alcohol. Iso-santonin 
melts at 138° ; it has the same composition as santonin. It is dis¬ 
tinguished from santonin by giving no red colour when treated with sul¬ 
phuric or phosphoric acids. A hydro-iodide of santonin, (C 15 H 18 0 3 )I 2 HI, 
is formed as a greenish-brown precipitate on adding santonin to 
hydriodic acid containing free iodine. 
II.—Mezereon. 
§ 590 . The Daphne Mezereum (L.).—Mezereon, an indigenous shrub belonging 
to the Thymeleacece, is rather rare in the wild state, but very frequent in gardens. 
The flowers are purple and the berries red. Buckheim isolated by means of ether an 
acrid resin, which was converted by saponifying agents into mezereic acid ; the acrid 
resin is the anhydride of the acid. The resin is presumed to be the active poisonous 
constituent of the plant, but the subject awaits further investigation. There are a 
few cases of poisoning on record, and they have been mostly from the berries. Thus, 
Linne has recorded an instance in which a little girl died after eating twelve berries. 
The symptoms observed in the recorded cases have been burning in the mouth, gastro¬ 
enteritis, vomiting, giddiness, narcosis, and convulsions, ending in death. The 
lethal dose for a horse is about 30 grms. of powdered bark ; for a dog, the oesophagus 
being tied, 12 grms. ; but smaller doses of the fresh leaves may be deadly. 
III.—Ergot of Rye. 
§ 591. Ergot is a peculiar fungus attacking the rye and other grami¬ 
naceous plants ; 1 it has received various names, Claviceps purpurea 
(Tulasne), Spermcedia clavus (Fries), Sclerotium clavus (D.C.), etc. The 
peculiar train of symptoms arising from the eating of ergotised grain 
(culminating occasionally in gangrene of the lower limbs), its powerful 
action on the pregnant uterus, and its styptic effects, are well known. 
1 Some of the Cyperacece are also attacked. 
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