An experimental inquiry into the physiological action of ergot of rye / by Samuuel Wright.

  • Wright Samuel, 1816 or, 17-1853.
Date:
[1838?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry into the physiological action of ergot of rye / by Samuuel Wright. 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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    AN EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY INTO THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF ERGOT OF RYE, By SAMUEL WRIGHT, B. A., F. B. S. E., M. S. A. Senior President of the Royal Medical, Royal Physical, and Hunterian Societies of Edinburgh, Honorary Member of the Metaphysical Association of Glasgow, and of the Physiological Society of Montpellier. [Being an abridgement of the Harveian Prize Essay for the Session 1837—38.} (From the Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, No. 141.) Whether ergotted grain were known to the ancients is a matter of doubt. It is said to have been mentioned by Theophras- tus, Virgil, Ovid, and Pliny ;* but I think it very probable that they were not acquainted with any other forms of the disease than smut and mildew. The luxuries segetum of Theophrastus and Pliny has been supposed to imply ergot, though the evidence in its favour I have never been able clearly to ascertain. We are, however, certain that it has been extensively known during the last two centuries, described as chiefly affecting rye, and recog- * Spicae quaedam binos ordines habent, quasdam plures usque ad senos. Grano ipsi aliquot differentia?, longius, leviusque, aut brevius, nut rotundius, candidius, nigrius, vel cui purpura est—Plinii, Nat. Hist. lib. 18, c. 18.