book 18

. ch. 44.

[2751] _Kreuterbuch_, ed. 1582. 285 (not in the edition of 1560).

[2752] _Sylva Hercynia_, Francof. 1588. 47.

[2753] _Pinax Theatri Botanici_, Basil. 1623. 23.

[2754] _Hist. Plant._ ii. (1693) 1241.

[2755] Stillé, _Therapeutics and Mat. Med._ ii. (1868) 609.

[2756] From 1825 to 1828 the wholesale price of ergot of rye in London was from 36_s._ to 50_s._ per lb., that is to say, from twelve to fifteen times its present value.

The use of flour containing a considerable proportion of ergot, gives rise to a very formidable disease, distinguished in modern medicine as _Ergotism_, but known in early times by a variety of names, as _Morbus spasmodicus_, _convulsivus_, _malignus_, _epidemicus vel cerealis_, _Raphania_, _Convulsio raphania_[2757] or _Ignis sancti Antonii_.

Some of the malignant epidemics which visited Europe after seasons of rain and scarcity during the middle ages have been referred with more or less of probability to ergot-disease.[2758] The chronicles of the 6th and 8th centuries note the occurrence of maladies which may be suspected as due to ergotized grain. There is less of doubt regarding the epidemics that prevailed from the 10th century and were frequent in France, and in the 12th in Spain. In the year 1596 Hessen (Hessia) and the adjoining regions were ravaged by a frightful pestilence, which the Medical Faculty of Marburg attributed to the presence of ergot in the cereals consumed by the population. The same disease appeared in France in 1630, in Voigtland (Saxony) in the years 1648, 1649, and 1675; again in various parts of France, as Aquitaine and Sologne, in 1650, 1670, and 1674. Freiburg and the neighbouring region were visited by the same malady in 1702; other parts of Switzerland in 1715-16; Saxony and Lusatia in 1716; many other districts of Germany in 1717, 1722, 1736, and 1741-2.[2759] The last epidemic in Europe occasioned by ergot appears to be that which, after the rainy season of 1816, visited Lorraine and Burgundy, and proved fatal to many people of the poorer class. Ergot disease is sometimes observed in Abyssinia at the present day,[2760] and a few cases of it have even been lately recorded in Bavaria.[2761]

=Formation=—The true nature of ergot has long been the source of a great diversity of opinion, not set at rest by the admirable researches of L. R. Tulasne, from whose _Mémoire sur l’Ergot des Glumacées_,[2762] the following account is for the most part extracted.

[2757] Pereira, _Elem. of Mat. Med._ ii. (1850) 1007.

[2758] Consult Häser, _Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der Volkskrankheiten_, 1845. i. 256. 830, ii. 94; C. F. Heusinger, _Recherches de Pathologie comparée_, Cassel, i. (1853) 543-554; Mérat et De Lens, _Dict. Mat. Med._ iii. 131, vii. 268.

[2759] Tissot of Lausanne, _Phil. Trans._ lv. (1766) 106.—See also Dodart, _Mém. de l’ Acad. R. des Sciences_, x., années 1666-1699 (Paris, 1730) 561; _Hist. de la Soc. Roy. de Méd._, année 1776. 345; and _Mém. de Méd. et de Phys. méd._ année 1776. 260-311. 417.

[2760] Th. von Heuglin, _Reise nach Abessinien_ etc. Jena, 1868. 180.

[2761] Wiggers and Husemann, _Jahresbericht_ for 1870. 582.

[2762] _Ann. des Sciences nat._, Bot., xx. (1853) 1-56 and 4 plates.—More recent observations will be found in St. Wilson’s paper, _Trans. of the Bot. Society of Edinburgh_, xli. (1876) 418-434 with figures; and especially in Luerssen (quoted at p. 735) 156, _et seqq._

The formation of ergot often affects only a few caryopsides in a single ear; sometimes, however, more than twenty. In the former case, the healthy development of the other caryopsides is not prevented, but if too many are attacked, the entire ear decays. The more isolated ergots generally grow larger, and attain their greatest size on rye which springs up here and there among other cereals.

The first symptoms of ergot-formation is the so-called _honey-dew of rye_, a yellowish mucus, having an intensely sweet taste, and the peculiar disagreeable odour frequently belonging to fungi. Drops of this mucus show themselves here and there on the ears in the neighbourhood of diseased grains, and attract ants and beetles of various kinds, especially the yellowish-red _Rhagonycha melanura_ Fabr., but not bees. On this account the beetle in question has been supposed to be instrumental in the development of ergot, and it may possibly be so, but only by transporting the saccharine mucus from one plant to another.

The honey-dew of rye contains neither oil-drops nor starch. After dilution with water, it produces a rapid and abundant separation of cuprous oxide from an alkaline solution of cupric tartrate. Dried over sulphuric acid, it solidifies into a crystalline mass. After a few days the drops of honey-dew dry up and disappear from the ear. The grain at this period becomes completely disintegrated, and devoid of starch.

The ergotized soft ovaries are covered with, and penetrated by a white, spongy, felted tissue, the _mycelium_ of the young fungus. It is made up of slender, thread-like cells, the _hyphæ_, the outer layer of which consists of radially-diverging cells, the _basidia_. The whole mycelium forms by its crevices and folds a number of cavities opening externally; from its outer layer, which is also called the _hymenium_ or _spermatophorum_, an immense number of agglutinated, elongated granules, the _conidia_, are separated. These cells, the products of the basidia, are not more than four mkm. in length, and give the floral organs the appearance of being covered with a whitish dust. The honey-dew likewise contains an abundance of conidia, but it is only on dilution that they are precipitated and become easily perceptible; the formation of the honey-dew is intimately connected with that of the conidia themselves. Ergot in this primary or mycelium stage was regarded as an independent fungus by Léveillé (1827), who named it _Sphacelia segetum_. According to Kühn (1863), it may even be directly by germination of the conidia within the ears of rye.

The mycelium penetrates and envelops the caryopsis, with the exception of the apex, and thereby prevents its further growth, destroying especially the epicarp and the embryo. At the base of the caryopsis, there is formed by tumefaction and gradual transverse separation of the thread-cells of the mycelium, a more compact kernel-like body (the future ergot) violet-black without, white within, which gradually but largely increases in size, and ultimately separates from the mycelium as the loose tissue of the latter dries and shrinks up after the completion of its functions. By this growth, the remains of the caryopsis, still recognizable by their hairs and by the rudiments of the style, as well as by the surviving portions of the mycelium-tissue, become visible above the paleæ on the apex of the mature ergot, now projecting prominently from the ear. Very rarely the ergot is crowned by a fully developed seed; in the commercial drug, the apex is usually broken off.

It is evident that in the process of development just described, the very tissue of the caryopsis of the rye does not undergo a _transformation_, but that it is _simply destroyed_. Neither in external form, nor in anatomical structure does ergot exhibit any resemblance to a caryopsis or a seed, although its development takes place between the flowering time and that at which the rye begins to ripen. It has been regarded as a complete fungus, and as such was named by De Candolle (1816) _Sclerotium Clavus_ and by Fries _Spermædia Clavus_.

No further change in the ergot occurs while it remains in the ear; but laid on damp earth, interesting phenomena take place. At certain points, small orbicular patches of the rind fold themselves back, and gradually throw out little white heads. These increase in size, whilst the outer layers of the neighbouring tissue gradually lose their firmness and become soft and rather granular, at the same time that the cells, of which they are made up, become empty and extended. In the interior of the ergot, the cells retain their oil drops unaltered. The heads assume a greyish-yellow colour, changing to purple, and finally after some weeks stretch themselves towards the light on slender shining stalks of a pale violet colour. The stalks often attain an inch in length, with a thickness of about ½ a line. They consist of thin, parallel, closely-felted cell-threads, devoid of fat oil. Ergot is susceptible of this further development only so long as it is fresh, that is to say, at most until the next flowering time of rye. Within this period however, even fragments are capable of development. There are sometimes also produced colourless threads of mould which belong to other fungi, as _Verticillium cylindrosporum_ Corda, and which frequently overgrow the _Claviceps_.[2763]

[2763] Ergot of rye collected by myself in August, placed upon earth in a garden-pot and left in the open air unprotected through the winter, began to develop the _Claviceps_ on the 20th March, and on another occasion on the 20th April, at which date some sowed in February also began to start, Sharp frost appears to retard the vegetation; thus, after the cold winter of 1869-70, _Claviceps_, even in the greenhouse, did not make its appearance before the 11th May. The earliest instance of fully developed _ergots_ which I ever observed, occurred on the 11th of June; more frequently they are seen only in the beginning of July.—F. A. F.

At the point where the stalk joins the spherical or somewhat flattened head, the latter is depressed and surrounds the stalk with an annular border. After a short time there appear on the surface of the head, which is ⅒ of an inch in diameter, a number of brownish warts, in which are the openings of minute cavities, the _conceptacula_ or _perithecia_. On transverse section, they appear arranged radially round the circumference of the head. In each cavity are a large number of delicate sacs, only 3-5 mkm. thick, and about 100 mkm. long, the _thecæ_ or _asci_, each containing, as is usual in fungi, 8 spores. These are simple thread-shaped cells, filled with a homogeneous solid mass.

The thicker ends of the spore-sacs (_asci_) open while still within the perithecium; the spores issue united in a bundle, and are emitted from the aperture of the perithecium. In consequence of their somewhat glutinous consistence, they remain united even after their extrusion, and form white silky flocks; their number in the 20 or 30 heads sometimes produced from a single ergot, often exceeds a million. The heads themselves die in two or three weeks after they have begun to make their appearance. They represent the true fructification of the fungus. This state of the plant appears to have been first noticed in 1801 by Schumacher, who called it _Sphæria_; it was subsequently known as _Cordiceps_, _Cordyliceps_, _Kentrosporium_, etc., until Tulasne proved it to be the final stage of development of ergot.

The three different forms of this structure, namely, the mycelium, the ergot, and the fruit-bearing heads, are therefore merely successive states of one and the same biennial fungus, which have been appropriately united by Tulasne under the name of _Claviceps purpurea_. The middle stage forms the _sclerotium_, which occurs in a large number of the most various fungi, and is a special state of rest of these plants. The direct proof that the mycelium is produced from spores of the fruit-head sown on ears of rye, was supplied by Kühn in 1863. It has already been mentioned that the same organism is produced from conidia; whence it appears that a twofold formation of ergot is possible, as is frequently the case in other fungi.

=Description=—Spurred rye, as found in commerce, consists of fusiform grains, which it is convenient to term _ergots_. They are from ⅓ to 1½ inch in length, and ½ to 4 lines in diameter; their form is subcylindrical or obtusely prismatic, tapering towards the ends, generally arched, with a longitudinal furrow on each side. At the apex of each ergot, there is often a small whitish easily detached appendage, while the opposite extremity is somewhat rounded. The ergots are firm, horny, somewhat elastic, have a close fracture, are brittle when dry, yet difficult to pulverize. The whitish interior is frequently laid bare by deep transverse cracks. The tissue is but imperfectly penetrated by water, even the thinnest sections swelling but slightly in that fluid.

Ergot of rye has a peculiar offensive odour, and a mawkish, rancid taste. It is apt to become deteriorated by keeping, especially when pulverized, partly from oxidation of the oil, and partly from the attacks of a mite of the genus _Trombidium_. To assist its preservation, it should be thoroughly dried, and kept in closed bottles.

=Microscopic Structure=—In fully developed ergot, no organs can be distinguished. It consists of uniform, densely felted tissue of short, thread-like, somewhat thick-walled cells, which are irregularly packed, and so intimately matted together that it is only by prolonged boiling of thin slices with potash, and alternate treatment with acids and ether, that the individual cells can be made evident. Without such treatment, the cells even in the thinnest sections, show a somewhat rounded, nearly isodiametric outline. This pseudo-parenchyme of ergot exhibits therefore an aspect somewhat different from that of the loosely felted cells (_hyphæ_) of other fungi. Ergot nevertheless is not made up of cells differing from those of fungi generally. If thin longitudinal slices of the innermost tissue are allowed to remain in a solution of chromic acid containing about 1 per cent., they will distinctly show the _hyphæ_, which are however considerably shorter than those of other fungi. They contain numerous drops of fat oil, but neither starch nor crystals. It is remarkable that this nearly empty and not much thickened parenchyme should form so compact and solid a tissue.

The cell-walls of the tissue of ergot are not coloured blue, even after prolonged treatment with iodine in solution of potassium iodide; or when the tissue has been previously treated with sulphuric acid, or kept for days in contact with potash and absolute alcohol at 100° C. In this respect the cellulose of fungi differs from that of phanerogamic plants.

Of the outermost rows of cells in ergot, a few only are of a violet colour, but they are not otherwise distinguishable from the colourless tissue,—or at most by the somewhat greater thickness of their walls.

=Chemical Composition=—The composition of ergot has been elaborately investigated by Wiggers as early as 1830. The drug contains about 30 per cent. of a non-drying, yellowish oil, chiefly consisting of olein, palmitin, and small proportions of volatile fatty acids, especially acetic and butyric, combined with glycerin. The large amount of oil is remarkable; the fungi, dried at 100°, usually contain not more than 5 per cent. of fat, mostly much less; they are on the other hand much richer in albumin than ergot of rye. The oil of the latter, as extracted by bisulphide of carbon, is accompanied by small quantities of _resin_ and _cholesterin_ (see p. 420). It is erroneous to attribute to this oil the poisonous properties of ergot, although it has been shown by Ganser[2764] to display irritating properties when taken in doses of about 6 grammes. But the effects observed appear dependent on the presence in it of resin.

According to Wenzell (1864), ergot of rye contains two peculiar alkaloids, which he designated _Ecboline_ and _Ergotine_,[2765] and claimed to be the active principles of the drug. They were, however, got merely as brownish amorphous substances.

The two bases of ergot are, according to Wenzell, combined with _Ergotic Acid_, the existence of which has been further admitted by Ganser. It is said to be a volatile body yielding crystallizable salts.

A crystallized colourless alkaloid, _Ergotinine_, C₃₅H₄₀N₄O₆, has been isolated (1877-1878) by Tanret, a pharmacien of Troyes. He obtained it to the amount of about 0·04 per cent., some amorphous ergotinine moreover being present. Tanret exhausts the powdered drug with boiling alcohol, which by evaporation affords a fluid resin and an aqueous solution, besides a fatty layer. Some ergotinine is removed from the resin by shaking it with ether, and mixed with the main liquid. This is acidulated and purified by means of ether. Lastly, the ergotinine is extracted by adding a slight excess of carbonate of potassium and shaking with ether, and recrystallizing from alcohol. The solutions of ergotinine turn very soon greenish and red; they are fluorescent. Sulphuric acid imparts to it a red, violet, and finally blue hue.

Dragendorff and several of his pupils, since 1875, have isolated the following _amorphous_ principles of the drug under notice:—(1) _Sclerotic acid_ (doubtful formula C₁₂H₁₉}NO₉), said to be a very

## active substance, chiefly in subcutaneous injections. About 4 per

cent. of colourless acid may be obtained from good ergot of rye. (2) _Scleromucin_, a mucilaginous matter, which may be precipitated by alcohol from aqueous extracts of the drug. Scleromucin when dried is no longer soluble in water. (3) _Sclererythrin_, the red colouring matter, probably allied to anthrachinon and the colouring substances of madder, chiefly to purpurin. (4) _Sclerojodin_, a bluish-black powder, soluble in alkalis. (5) _Fuscosclerotinic acid._ (6) _Picrosclerotine_, apparently a highly poisonous alkaloid. Lastly (7) _Scleroxanthin_, C₇H₇O₃ + OH₂; and (8) _Sclerocrystallin_, C₇H₇O₃, have been obtained in crystals; their alcoholic solution is but little coloured, yet assumes a violet hue on addition of ferric chloride.

Tanret also observed in ergot of rye a volatile _camphoraceous substance_.

Ergot, in common with other fungi,[2766] contains a sugar termed _Mycose_, closely allied to cane-sugar, and probably identical with _Trehalose_ (see p. 417). Mycose crystallizes in rhombic octohedra, having the composition C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + 2H₂O. Mitscherlich obtained of it about one-tenth per cent. It appears that the sugar exuded in the first stage of growth of the fungus,—the so-called _rye honey-dew_,—is in its principal characters different from mycose. Instead of the latter, Mitscherlich, as well as Fiedler and Ludwig, sometimes obtained from ergot _Mannite_.

[2764] _Archiv der Pharm._ cxliv. (1870) 200.

[2765] The name _Ergotine_ has also been given to a medicinal extract of ergot, prepared after a method devised by Bonjean, a pharmacien of Chambéry, vide _Journ. de Pharm._ iv. (1843) 107; Pereira, _Elem. of Mat. Med._ ii. (1850) 1012.

[2766] See Müntz in _Comptes Rendus_, lxxvi. (1873) 649.

Schoonbroodt also found in ergot _Lactic Acid_. Several other chemists have further proved the presence of acetic and formic acids.

Starch is entirely wanting in ergot at all times. The drug yields about 3 per cent. of nitrogen, corresponding probably to a large amount of albuminoid matter. Ganser, however, obtained only 3·2 per cent. of albumin _soluble in water_.

When ergot or its alcoholic extract is treated with an alkali it yields, as products of the decomposition of the albuminoid matters, ammonia or ammonia-bases, according to Ludwig and Stahl, _Methylamine_,—according to others, _Trimethylamine_. Manassewitz, as well as Wenzell, state that phosphate of trimethylamine is present in an aqueous extract of ergot, but Ganser ascertained that no such base _pre-exists_ in ergot. We have found that the crystals which abound in the extract, after it has been kept for some time, are an acid phosphate of sodium and ammonium with a small proportion of sulphate.[2767]

=Production and Commerce=—Ergot of rye is to be met with in all the countries producing cereals; we have seen it in the high valleys of the Alps, and Schübeler states that it grows in Norway, as far north as 60° N. lat.

The drug is chiefly imported into London from Vigo in Spain and from Tenerife; it is also shipped from Hamburg and France. Dr. de Lanessan, writing to one of us from Vigo in 1872, remarks that vast quantities of rye are grown in Galicia, and that owing to the humidity of the climate the grain is extensively ergotized,—in fact the parasite is present in one ear out of every three. At the time of harvest the ergots are picked out, and the rye is thus rendered fit for food.

Southern and Central Russia furnish considerable supplies of the drug. In the central parts of Europe, ergot does not everywhere occur in sufficient abundance to be collected, and it greatly diminishes as the state of agriculture improves. We have noticed that ergot from Odessa was of a slaty hue and in much smaller grains than that from Spain.

=Uses=—Ergot is principally used on account of its specific action on the uterus in parturition.

=Other Varieties of Ergot=—_Ergot of Wheat_ (Triticum vulgare), which is in shorter and thicker ergots than that of rye, is picked out by hand in some parts of Italy and France, from grain intended to be used for the manufacture of vermicelli and other pastes; and such ergot is sold to druggists. Carbonneaux Le Perdriel[2768] has endeavoured to show that it is less prone to become deteriorated by age than that of rye, and that it never produces the deleterious effects sometimes occasioned by the latter.

[2767] The red colour of an alcoholic solution may serve for the detection of small quantities of ergot in flour. The reaction with potash, and evolution of the characteristic odour of herring brine may assist in the same object. Extraction of the fatty oil with carbon bisulphide may also be recommended as a test, inasmuch as good cereal grains contain but a very small percentage of fat.

[2768] _De l’Ergot de Froment et de ses propriétés méd._ (thèse) Montpellier, 1862.

The same writer asserts that _Ergot of Oat_ is sometimes collected and sold either _per se_, or mixed with that of rye. It differs from the latter in the ergots being considerably more slender.

Ergot of the North African grass _Arundo Ampelodesmos_ Cirillo, known as _Diss_, has been collected for use, and according to Lallemant[2769] is twice as active as that of rye. It is from 1 to 3 inches long by only about ⅒ of an inch broad, generally arched, or in the large ergots twisted spirally. We find it to share the structural character of the ergot of rye; it is in all probability the same formation, yet remarkably modified.

ALGÆ (FLORIDEÆ).

CHONDRUS CRISPUS.

_Fucus Hibernicus_; _Carrageen_,[2770] _Irish Moss_; F. _Mousse d’Irlande_, _Mousse perlée_; G. _Knorpeltang_, _Irländisches Moos_, _Perlmoos_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Chondrus crispus_ Lyngbye (_Fucus crispus_ L.), a sea weed of the class _Florideæ_, abundant on rocky sea-shores of Europe from the North Cape to Gibraltar; not frequent however in the Baltic, and altogether wanting in the Mediterranean, but largely met with on the eastern coasts of North America.

=History=—_Chondrus crispus_ was figured in 1699 by Morison,[2771] yet only Todhunter at Dublin introduced it to the notice of the medical profession in England in 1831, and shortly afterwards it attracted some attention in Germany. It was never admitted to the London or British pharmacopœia, and is but little esteemed in medicine.

=Description=—The entire plant is collected: in the fresh state it is soft and cartilaginous, varying in colour from yellowish-green to livid purple or purplish-brown, but becoming, after washing and exposure to the sun, white or yellowish, and when dry, shrunken, horny and translucent.

The base is a small flattened disc, from which springs a frond or thallus 4 to 6 inches or more in length, having a slender subcylindrical stem, expanding fan-like into wedge-shaped segments, of very variable breadth, flat or curled, and truncate, emarginate or bifid at the summit.

The fructification[2772] consists of tetraspores or cystocarps, rising but slightly from the substance of the thallus, and appearing as little wart-like protuberances.

In cold water, carrageen swells up to its original bulk, and acquires a distinct seaweed-like smell. A quantity of water equal to 20 or 30 times its weight, boiled with it for ten minutes, solidifies on cooling to a pale mawkish jelly.

[2769] _Etude sur l’Ergot du Diss_, Alger et Paris, 1863; _Journ. de Pharm._ i. (1865) 444.

[2770] _Carrageen_ in Irish signifies _moss of the rock_. We learn from an Irish scholar that it would be more correctly written _carraigeen_.

[2771] _Plantar. hist. universal._ Oxon. iii. tab. 11.

[2772] See Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) i. 124 _et seq._

=Microscopic Structure=—The tissue of _Chondus crispus_ is made up of globular or elongated, thick-walled cells. The superficial layers on both sides of the lobes constitute a kind of peel, easily separable in microscopic sections. The interior or medullary part exhibits a much less densely packed tissue formed of larger cells. The larger cavities of this tissue contain a granular mucilaginous matter, assuming a slight violet tinge on addition of iodine. In water however, the cell-walls swell up so as to form a gelatinous mass, in which separate cells can at last be scarcely distinguished.[2773] In the fresh state, its cells also contain granules of chlorophyll imbued with a red matter, termed _Phyco-erythrin_. But by washing and exposure to the air, these colouring substances are removed or greatly altered, and are no longer visible in the commercial drug.

=Chemical Composition=—The constituents of carrageen are those generally found in marine algæ, especially as regards the mucilage. This latter is insoluble in an ammoniacal solution of copper (Schweizer’s test); by the action of fuming nitric acid, it yields, in common with gum, an abundance of mucic acid. The mucilage of carrageen, like many similar bodies, obstinately retains inorganic matter; after it had three times been dissolved in water, and as many times precipitated with alcohol, we found it still to yield the same quantity of ash as the raw drug itself, that is to say, more than 15 per cent. The mucilage, perfectly dried, is a tough horny substance, of a greyish colour; it quickly swells up in water, forming a jelly which is precipitable by neutral acetate of lead.

By boiling carrageen for a week with water containing 5 per cent. of sulphuric acid, Bente (1876) obtained crystals of _lævulinic acid_, C₅H₈O₃, and an amorphous sugar. The former is also afforded by cellulose of pine wood and by paper.

According to Blondeau,[2774] the mucilage of carrageen contains 21 per cent. of nitrogen and 2·5 of sulphur, a statement which we are able to point out as erroneous. We find in it no sulphur, and only 0·88 per cent. of nitrogen. The drug itself yielded us not more than 1·012 per cent. of nitrogen.

When thin slices of the plant are treated with alcoholic potash, and then after washing left for 24 hours in contact with a solution of iodine in potassium iodide, they acquire a deep blue; yet, starch granules are not found in this seaweed. Lastly in connexion with carrageen may be mentioned _Fucusol_, an oily liquid isomeric with furfurol, obtained by boiling seaweeds with dilute sulphuric acid.

=Commerce=—The plant is collected on the west and north-west coast of Ireland: Sligo is said to be a great depôt for it. Carrageen of superior quality is sometimes imported from Hamburg.

[2773] Alcohol, glycerin or a fatty oil are the liquids most suited for the microscopic examination of this drug.

[2774] _Journ. de Pharm._ ii. (1865) 159.

The largest quantities of carrageen, sometimes half a million pounds a year, are gathered near Minot Ledge lighthouse, Scituate, Plymouth county, on the coast of Massachusetts, where a systematic process of preparing it for the market is adopted.[2775]

=Uses=—The mucilaginous decoction and jelly which carrageen affords are popular remedies in pulmonary and other complaints; but as nutriment such preparations are much over-estimated.[2776]

Carrageen is sometimes used for feeding cows and calves; and under the name of _Alga marina_, for stuffing mattresses. It is largely used for industrial purposes, like other mucilaginous matter. Its mucilage serves for thickening the colours employed in calico-printing, and as size for paper and for cotton goods. In America it is used for fining beer.

=Substitutes=—_Gigartina mammillosa_[2777] J. Agardh (_Chondrus mammillosus_ Grev.) is collected indiscriminately with _Ch. crispus_. It is distinguished from the latter chiefly by having the flat portion of the thallus beset with elevated or stalked tubercles, bearing the cystocarps; but it has the same properties. _G. acicularis_ Lamouroux, a species common on the coasts of France and Spain, and having slender cylindrical branches, is occasionally collected along with _Chondrus crispus_. Dalmon (1874) who has examined it, asserts it to be less soluble in boiling water than true carrageen. Small quantities of other seaweeds are often present through the negligence of the collectors.

FUCUS AMYLACEUS.

_Alga Zeylanica_; _Ceylon Moss_,[2778] _Jaffna Moss_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Sphærococcus lichenoides_ Agardh. (_Gracillaria lichenoides_ Grev., _Plocaria candida_ Nees), a light purple or greenish seaweed, belonging to the class _Florideæ_, occurring on the coasts of Ceylon, Burma, and the Malay islands.[2779]

=History=—Ceylon moss has long been in use among the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago and the Chinese. It is probably one of the plants described by Rumphius[2780] as _Alga coralloides_. In recent times it was brought to the notice of European physicians by O’Shaughnessy.[2781]

=Description=—The plant, which as found in commerce is opaque and white, having been deprived of colour by drying in the sun and air, consists of cylindrical ramifying stems or filaments, ⅒ of an inch in diameter and from 1 to 6 or more inches in length. The main stems bear numerous branches, simple or giving off slender secondary or tertiary ramifications, ending in a short point. When moistened, the plant increases a little in volume, becomes rather translucent, and frequently exhibits whitish globular or mammiform fruits (cystocarps). It is somewhat friable, and after drying at 100° C. may easily be powdered. It is devoid of taste and smell, in this respect differing from most sea weeds.

[2775] Bates in _Amer. Journ. of Pharm._ 1868. 417; also _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1869) and viii. (1877) 304.

[2776] A person must eat a _pound_ of stiff jelly made of the powdered seaweed before he would have swallowed _half an ounce_ of dry solid matter.

[2777] Fig. in Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) 126.

[2778] For convenience we accept the popular name of _moss_, though it is no longer in accordance with the signification of the word in modern science (see p. 737, note 2).

[2779] The _Pharmacopœia of India_ (1868) names _Sphærococcus confervoides_ Ag. (_Gracillaria_ Grev.), a plant of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean, not uncommon on the shores of Britain, as furnishing a portion of the drug under notice. Specimens which we have examined are widely different in structure from _S. lichenoides_, and are apparently devoid of starch.

[2780] _Herb. Amboin._ vi. lib. xi c. 56.

[2781] _Indian Journ. of Med. Science_, Calcutta, March, 1834; _Bengal Dispensatory_, 1841. 668.

=Microscopic Structure=—The transverse section shows a loose tissue made up of large empty cells, enclosed by a cortical zone 30 to 70 mkm. thick. This zone consists of small cells, loaded with globular starch granules, from less than 1 up to 3 mkm. in diameter, so densely packed as to form what seems at first sight a single mass in each cell. In the larger cells the granules are attached to the walls; they do not display in polarized light the usual cross. The thick walls of the cells show a stratified structure, especially after having been moistened with chromic acid; on addition of a solution of iodine in an alkaline iodide, they assume a deep brown, but the starch granules, which also abound in the cystocarps, display the usual blue tint.

=Chemical Composition=—The drug, as examined by O’Shaughnessy, yielded in 100 parts of vegetable jelly 54·5, starch 15·0, ligneous fibre (cellulose?) 18·0, mucilage 4·0, inorganic salts 7·5.

Cold water removes the mucilage, which, after due concentration, may be precipitated by neutral acetate of lead. This mucilage, when boiled for some time with nitric acid, produces oxalic acid and microscopic crystals of mucic acid (beautifully seen by polarized light), soluble in boiling water and precipitating on cooling. With one part of the drug and 100 parts of boiling water a thick liquid is obtained which affords transparent precipitates with neutral acetate of lead or alcohol, in the same way as carrageen. With 50 parts of water, a transparent tasteless jelly, devoid of viscosity, is produced; in common with the mucilage, it furnishes mucic acid, if treated with nitric acid. Micro-chemical tests do not manifest albuminous matter in this plant.

Some chemists have regarded the jelly extracted by boiling water as identical with pectin, but the fact requires proof. Payen[2782] called it _Gelose_, and found it composed of carbon 42·77, hydrogen 5·77, and oxygen 51·45 per cent. Gum Arabic contains carbon 42·12, hydrogen 6·41, and oxygen 51·47 = C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁. Payen’s gelose imparts a gelatinous consistence to 500 parts of water; it is extracted by boiling water from the plant previously exhausted by cold water slightly acidulated.[2783]

The inorganic salts of Ceylon moss consist, according to O’Shaughnessy, of sulphates, phosphates, and chlorides of sodium and calcium, with neither iodide nor bromide. Dried at 100° C., it yielded us 9·15 per cent. of ash.

=Uses=—A decoction of Ceylon moss made palatable by sugar and aromatics, has been recommended as a demulcent, and a light article of food for invalids. In the Indian Archipelago and in China, immense quantities of this and of some other species of seaweed[2784] are used for making jelly and for other purposes.

[2782] _Comptes Rendus_, xlix. (1859) 521; _Pharm. Journ._ i. (1860) 470. 508.

[2783] Gelose even in the moist state is but little prone to change, and the jelly made by the Chinese as a sweetmeat which consists mainly of it, will keep good for years.

[2784] Consult Martius, _Neues Jahrb. f. Pharm._ Bd. ix. März 1858; Cooke, _Pharm. Journ._ i. (1860) 504; Holmes, _Pharm. Journ._ ix. (1878) 45.

APPENDIX.

SHORT BIOGRAPHIC AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES,

Relating to Authors and Books quoted in the Pharmacographia. They may be completed by consulting especially the following works:—

CHOULANT, Geschichte und Literatur der älteren Medicin,