ERGOT OF RYE. 
§§ 604, 605.] 
473 
lain in the ground till many of the grains were black, and totally 
decayed.” 1 
§ 604. Symptoms of Acute Poisoning by Ergot. —In a fatal case 
of poisoning by ergot of rye, recorded by Dr Davidson, 2 in which a 
hospital nurse, aged 28, took ergot, the symptoms were mainly vomiting 
of blood, the passing of bloody urine, intense jaundice, and stupor. But 
in other cases, jaundice and vomiting of blood have not been recorded, 
and the general course of acute poisoning shows, on the one hand, symp¬ 
toms of intense gastro-intestinal irritation, as vomiting, colicky pains, 
and diarrhoea ; and, on the other, of a secondary affection of the nervous 
system, weakness of the limbs, aberrations of vision, delirium, retention 
of urine, coma, and death. 
§ 605. Physiological Action as shown by Experiments on Animals, 
—In spite of numerous experiments on animals and man, the action of 
the ergot principles remains obscure. It has been found in medicine to 
exert a specific action on the uterus, 3 causing powerful contractions of 
that organ, especially in labour. It is also a haemostatic, and is used to 
check bleeding from the lungs and other internal organs of the body. 
This haemostatic action, as well as the extraordinary property possessed 
by ergot, of producing an arrest or disturbance of the circulation 
inducing gangrene, has naturally led to the belief that ergot causes a 
narrowing in the calibre of the small arteries, but this has not received 
the necessary experimental sanction. Holmes, 4 Eberty, Kohler, 5 and 
Wernick 6 all observed a contraction in the part to which the ergot was 
applied, both in frogs and in warm-blooded animals ; but L. Hermann, 7 
although he made many experiments, and used various preparations, 
never succeeded in observing a contraction. It would also seem 
reasonable to expect that with a narrowing of the vessels, which 
means a peripheral obstruction, the blood-pressure would rise; but 
1 In the Phil. Trans, for 1762 there are two strictly concordant accounts of this 
case ; and in the parish church of Wattisham there is said to be a memorial tablet, 
which runs as follows :— s ’ This inscription serves to authenticate the truth of a 
singular calamity which suddenly happened to a poor family in this parish, of which 
six persons lost their feet by a mortification not to be accounted for. A full narra¬ 
tive of their case is recorded in the Parish Register and Philosophical Transactions 
for 1762.” 
2 Lancet, Sept. 30, 1882. 
3 In a case in which the senior author was engaged, a dabbler in drugs, having 
seduced a young woman, administered to her a dose of ergot which produced a mis¬ 
carriage, and for this offence he was convicted. The defence raised was that ergot 
is a common medicine used by physicians in the treatment of amenorrhoea and 
other uterine affections. Although in itself this statement was perfectly true, as a 
defence it was invalidated by the large dose given, the fact of the seduction, and the 
other circumstances of the case. 
4 Archiv d. Physiol. Norm. u. Pathol., iii. 384. 
5 Ueber die Wirkungen des Secale Cornutum, Dissert., Halle, 1873. 
6 Arch. f. pathol. Anat., lvi. 505. 
7 Lehrbuch der exper. Toxicoloyie, Berlin, 1874, p. 386. 
