Researches respecting the natural history, chemical analysis, and medicinal virtues, of the spur, or ergot of rye, when administered as a remedy in certain states of the uterus / [abridged] by A. Neale.

Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches respecting the natural history, chemical analysis, and medicinal virtues, of the spur, or ergot of rye, when administered as a remedy in certain states of the uterus / [abridged] by A. Neale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    before mentioned. From these comparative ex- periments^ repeated for a sufficient number of times, results might no doubt be obtained which would enable us to ju^ge, by means of facts_, of the merely theoretical opinions conceived by former authors. M. Leveille establishes also that the sphacelaria shows itself likewise on the spur which attacks several other vegfetables which we shall enumerate hereafter. But waiving all these opinions, one truth is certain, that in some countries, and more particularly in Sologne, in France, during rainy seasons, it is bbserved that the crops of rye are much more subject to the alteration of which we have been speaking; whilst elsewhere it is only met with in solitary instances, and without any perceptible cause; and in some parts too, as in the emirons of Paris, spurred rye is found in crops growing on a dry and sandy soil. The grain of the rye, when attacked with the spur, first becomes softish and pulpy; soon burst- ing out of its husk, it attains solidity, and length- ening itself it assumes a reddish colour, which then changes to violet. Its increase, which frequently very rapid, then shortly becomes stich that the grain, so altered, is most commonly out of all proportion to the rest of the spike. All the spikes springing from the same grain are far from being attacked with the spur; and a spike when attacked, generally presents but a few so I