It seems from the experiments of Dr. Wright to have no power whatever of inducing miscarriage in the lower animals.[[2487]] Notwithstanding the improbability, however, of its possessing the property of bringing on abortion, it is one of the substances at present occasionally employed with the view of feloniously causing this accident. In a case of attempt to procure abortion, which occurred not long ago in this city, one of the articles repeatedly employed, but without success, was powder of spurred rye,—as I had occasion to ascertain by chemical analysis.
Of Spurred Maize.—It has been already observed, that many other plants of the Natural Family of Grasses are subject to the ergot besides rye. But the only other species in which the disease has been particularly examined is Indian corn or maize [Zea Mays]. It appears from the inquiries of M. Roullin that maize is very subject to the spur in the provinces of Neyba and Maraquita in Colombia; that the spur forms a black, pear-shaped body on the ear in place of the pickle; and that in this state the grain, which is known by the name of maïs peladero, possesses properties injurious to animal life. Its effects, however, are somewhat different from those of spurred rye. Men who eat the ergotted maize lose their hair and sometimes their teeth, but are never attacked with dry gangrene or convulsions. When swine eat it, which after a time they do with avidity, the bristles drop off, and the hind-legs become feeble and wasted. Mules likewise lose their hair, and the hoofs swell. Fowls lay their eggs without the shell. Apes and parrots, which frequent the fields of spurred maize, fall down as if drunk; and the native dogs and deer experience similar effects.[[2488]]
Of the Rust of Wheat.
There are several other diseases to which grain is liable, and which are much more common in this country than the ergot. But very little is known of their effects on the animal body; which circumstance, since the wheat of this and other countries often suffers from them, is probably sufficient to show that their influence must be trifling, or at all events very seldom called forth. Wheat is liable to three diseases. One is a disease of the stalk and leaf rather than of the ear, and has the effect of preventing the development of the ear or its pickles, and of covering the plant with a brown powder. Of the two other diseases, which both attack the pickles of the ear, one consists in the substitution of a brown dry powder for the farina of the pickle, and the other of a deposition of black moist matter in the fissure of the pickle, the substance of which it also invades and partially destroys. One of these is called in Scotland brown rust, the other black rust.
Of the three diseases the only one which is apt to infect the flour is the black rust. The others, as they consist of a light dry powder, are almost entirely separated in thrashing and winnowing the grain. But the black rust being damp and adhesive, it is carried along with the pickles. Such pickles are almost invariably separated by the farmer if they are abundant; for otherwise, on account of the dark colour and disagreeable odour of the matter deposited on them, the flour possesses external qualities which would be at once recognized by a dealer of ordinary experience.
It is not improbable, that a moderate impregnation of bread with the powder formed by the diseases in question may take place, without leading to any unpleasant effect on the human body. Experiments to this effect were made by Parmentier with one of them, termed in France carie, or caries of wheat, which from his description appears to be the black rust of Scottish farmers. He gave two dogs each two drachms daily of the powder for fifteen days, without remarking any sign of ill health. Bread made with wheat flour containing a 64th of the powder, when eaten by various people, and Parmentier among the rest, to the amount of a pound daily for several days, caused slight headache and pain in the stomach the first day only; and in larger proportion it had as little effect.[[2489]]
It appears, then, that the introduction of any deleterious ingredient into wheat bread is hardly to be dreaded from the common diseases to which wheat is liable in this country.
Of Unripe Grain.
Wheat and other grains have been supposed to acquire qualities detrimental to health, from being cut down while unripe, or used immediately after being cut down, although ripe. I am not aware that accidents have ever been traced or even imputed to such causes in this country; and, on the whole, I believe it is generally considered here, that imperfect ripening of the pickle rather lessens the quantity, than impairs the quality, of the flour. But several times epidemics have been ascribed in France to unripe wheat. In 1801 M. Bouvier read a memoir to the Society of Medicine at Paris, ascribing to new and unripe wheat an epidemic dysentery, which laid waste several districts of the department of the Oise in the autumn of 1793. These districts abound in small farms of a few acres, on the produce of which the cultivators depend in great measure for their subsistence. Hence in unfavourable seasons the corn was commonly cut down before it was ripe, and made into bread soon after being reaped. It was accordingly among the peasantry of these farms only, and not among the agriculturists in large farms, which were under better management, that the epidemic prevailed. Bouvier remarks, that at all times when the long continuance of wet weather has compelled the inhabitants of a district to cut down the wheat before it is ripe, or a previous dearth has forced them to use it when newly cut, epidemic disorders of the bowels have been observed to rage in the latter months of autumn. And as an instance of this he refers to the year 1783, when the crops around Paris were believed to have been injured by the extraordinary prevalence of fogs, and were cut down unripe and used immediately. Various epidemics broke out in the metropolis, and still more in the surrounding country.[[2490]] This is an important subject for farther inquiry; but at present I cannot help thinking that M. Bouvier exaggerates the effects of the immaturity of the grain. At all events, the grain is often cut down in an unripe state in various districts of this country; and I have never heard that any epidemic diseases were produced. When M. Bouvier witnessed the epidemic of 1793 in the department of the Oise, he instructed the inhabitants of his own parish to dry the unripe corn before thrashing it, to repeat the process before the grain was converted into flour, and to mix with the flour a larger quantity than usual of yeast in making it into bread; and he states that in the succeeding year, which was even more unfavourable to the crops, they were enabled, by following these directions, to use unripe corn with safety.