notice of regular accoucheurs by the physicians of the United States between the years 1807 and 1814.[1] There appears little reason for doubting that it possesses the power of increasing the contractions of the uterus when unnaturally languid; and consequently it has been employed, apparently with frequent good effect, to hasten languid natural labour, to promote the separation of the placenta, and to quicken the contraction of the womb after delivery. These facts, however, are mentioned chiefly as preparatory to the statement, that it has been also supposed to possess the power of producing abortion, and has been actually employed for that purpose in some foreign countries, and even in this city. Accurate informatiou is still much wanted on this subject. No other poison seems so likely to possess a peculiar property of the kind. Nevertheless it is the opinion of the best authorities, that spurred rye has no such power, except in connexion with violent constitutional injury produced by dangerous doses; and that it is endowed with the property only of accelerating natural labour, not of inducing it, particularly in the early months of pregnancy.
It seems from the experiments of Dr. Wright to have no power whatever of inducing miscarriage in the lower animals.[2] 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.[3]
