Microbes, ferments and moulds / by E. L. Trouessart.

  • Trouessart, E.-L. (Edouard-Louis), 1842-1927.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Microbes, ferments and moulds / by E. L. Trouessart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the ergot 0f wheat should be used in medicine; it is O larger, harder, and more elongated in form, and it also appears to be less perishable. Ergot of rye, especially when powdered, strongly resembles meat in smell, and only becomes unpleasant when the powder is spoiled by being kept in a damp place; it then smells like rotten fish, and this is the case with many other fungi. At first the taste is not very apparent, but it after- wards produces on the pharynx a somewhat persistent sense of constriction. The chief action of this drug consists in producing contraction of unstriated muscu- lar fibres, especially those of the uterus. Ergotine and ergotinine are extracted from it, and these, which are its active principles, are often employed in thera- peutics in preference to raw ergot. In large doses ergot is a strong poison. It then produces characteristic symptoms, dilatation of the pupils, retardation of the circulation, vertigo, stupor, and even death. Bread made with flour from which the ergot has not been extracted may produce the grave symptoms known as ergotism, and these soon become fatal unless the use of such bread is discontinued. Sometimes nervous symptoms predominate, and this is termed convulsive ergotism; sometimes the disease takes the form of gangrene of the extremities, or gangrenous ergotism, but these two forms are only two phases of one and the same disease, and often occur in the same