The very general use of the drug by accoucheurs has, so to speak, popularised a knowledge of its action among all classes of society, and its criminal employment as an abortive appears to be on the increase.[600]
[600] The Russian peasantry use the drug for the same purpose. Vide Mackenzie Wallace’s “Russia,” i. p. 117.
The healthy grain of rye, if examined microscopically in thin sections, is seen to be composed of the seed-coating, made up of two layers, beneath which are the gluten-cells, whilst the great bulk of the seed is composed of cells containing starch. In the ergotised grain, dark (almost black) cells replace the seed-coat and the gluten-cells, whilst the large starch-containing cells are filled with the small cells of the fungus and numerous drops of oil.
§ 578. The chemical constituents of ergot are a fixed oil, trimethylamine, certain active principles, and colouring-matters.
The fixed oil is of a brownish-yellow colour, of aromatic flavour and acrid taste; its specific gravity is 0·924, and it consists chiefly of palmitin and olein; it has no physiological action.
Trimethylamine is always present ready formed in ergot; it can also be produced by the action of potash on ergot.
With regard to the active principles of ergot considerable confusion still exists, and no one has hitherto isolated any single substance in such a state of purity as to inspire confidence as to its formula or other chemical characters. They may, however, be briefly described.