Word: ergot
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...fear of ergot has been subtly inseminated throughout the U. S. during the last year, adding to the trepidation of conception. This week the source of that fear, a trade controversy, became public...
...Ergot is rotted rye. A fungus grows on the rye head and eats away the grains. What is left is a collection of hard bodies, each shaped like a cock's spur. Hence the name ergot, from French argot (spur). Good, dry ergot is of inestimable value in obstetrics. Its extract contracts the uterus and arteries, stops hemorrhages, raises blood pressure. Good ergot saves the lives and bolsters the health of hundreds of thousands of women annually. But bad ergot may contain poisons which cause abscesses and kill. U. S. pharmacists get their raw ergot from Spain, Portugal, Poland...
...makes it his business to examine samples of ergot from all countries is Dr. Henry Hurd Rusby, 74, professor of botany, physiology and materia medica at Columbia University since 1888. The condition of Spanish and Portuguese ergot Dr. Rusby has usually found good. The usual condition of Polish and Russian ergot has horrified him. He has found it mixed with black-eyed worms and gray lice. Samples were consistently old and mouldy. Extracts often killed experimental animals...