Secale cornutum 200c

Sec.

Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil.
[Thomas Carlyle]
Signs
Claviceps purpurea. Secale cornutum. Ergot. N.O. Pyrenomycetidae.
KINGDOM FUNGI Fungi were traditionally classified as a division in the kingdom Plantae. They were thought of as plants that have no stems or leaves and that in the course of becoming food absorbers lost the pigment chlorophyll, which is needed for conducting photosynthesis. Most scientists today, however, view them as an entirely separate group that evolved from unpigmented flagellates and place them either in the kingdom Protista or the kingdom Fungi, according to their complexity of organization. Approximately 100,000 species of fungi are known. The more complex groups are believed to have derived from the primitive types, which have flagellated cells at some stage in their life cycle.
CLASSIFICATION Fungi can be divided into three categories based on their relationship to their immediate environment. Parasitic fungi feed on living organisms; saprophytic fungi subsist on dead or decaying matter; mycorrhizal fungi form a symbiotic or mutually beneficial relationship with the rootlets of plants [mostly trees and shrubs]. Claviceps purpurea belongs to the first category. Parasitic fungi attack living organisms. They cannot exist except as parasites on living plants. .
ERGOT INFECTION Fungi of the genus Claviceps are responsible for ergot infection, a fungal disease that most often affects grains such as rye and triticale [a cross between wheat and rye, grown as a food crop], and grasses. This is because they are cross-pollinated and allow the fungus to enter the floret. Barley and wheat are less likely to become infected because they are self-pollinated. Oats is the least susceptible cereal grain. There are 32 recognized species of ergot, but the most common and most damaging one is Claviceps purpurea. If their sexual spores land on a healthy stigma of a grass flower stick or rye plant, they enter, as does pollen, into the ovary and begin to form a fine mycelial network. The colonisation of host tissue results in the formation of sclerotia or ergot bodies in place of grain kernels. These seed-like ergot bodies are purplish-black in colour, and have a hard, rough surface. They are up to 3 cm long, larger than the normal grain, and protrude conspicuously from the head of the plant. One to six ergot bodies may develop on one head. Ergots on wheat are straight, whereas those on rye usually are curved. [The name ergot comes from the French word for 'cockspur', which the dark sclerotium resembles. Secale is the Latin name for rye.] Infection of the cereal flowers may produce a secondary phase called honeydew. Honeydew is a shiny sticky liquid that oozes from infected flowers and contains large numbers of ergot spores. The spores spread to adjacent flowers and heads by insects and rain splash particularly to the open flowers of rye. The ideal conditions for ergot contamination is when moisture is readily available at the soil surface during spring and early summer and when wet weather prevails during flowering of cereals and grasses. These conditions extend the flowering period, the stage when the plant is most susceptible to infestation. Ergot sclerotia remain dormant in and on the soil through periods of winter and drought. They survive in the soil for approximately one year. The sclerotia must be exposed to cold [36-37º F] for several weeks in order to germinate. In the spring, the sclerotia germinate and form tiny, light yellow to red, spore-producing mushroom-like structures of 1-2 mm in diameter The spores become airborne and infect grasses and certain crops. Grasses may act as a reservoir for ergot. Ergot infection has also been linked to soil copper deficiency. Sandy or light loam soils are most likely to become copper deficiencies and therefore have increased susceptibility to ergot. Copper deficiency can delay flowering and cause male sterility, causing the floret to remain open for longer allowing spores to enter.
CONSTITUENTS The chemical compounds of Claviceps are collectively known as ergot alkaloids. They include ergotamine, ergosine, ergonine, ergovaline, ergostine, ergocornine, ergocristine, ergocryptine, and some thirty others. Ergot alkaloids cause a constriction of smooth muscle fibres and the walls of small blood vessels and all of them have some degree of psychoactivity. The toxic and psychoactive components of ergot are not broken down by heat, so that they occur unaltered in bread baked from flour milled from contaminated grain [chiefly rye]. Based on the naturally occurring tetracyclic alkaloid lysergic acid, ergot alkaloids are a source of lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD. [The Beatles wrote a song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which describes the psychedelic effects of LSD.] Writing in the early 1950s, when LSD was exclusively employed as a psychotherapeutical agent, the German toxicologist Gustav Schenk found LSD "a narcotic of a very strange kind" because: "The person intoxicated with it sees the world as he has never seen it before. The objects he perceives acquire huge dimensions; for example, his hand holding a glass becomes enormous, and the glass itself assumes gigantic proportions. His self-confidence increases inordinately and all the spaces around him become immeasurably enlarged. Later, he loses all sense of his own personality; his contact with things disappears, and not a trace remains of his initial sensation of enhanced self-assurance. It will certainly not be long before there are a number of lysergic acid diethylamide addicts. Lysergic acid diethylamide has proved to be of immense therapeutic value in the field of psychiatry. It possesses the startling property of wiping out inhibitions and releasing the most profoundly buried memories. Injected with minute quantities of LSD, patients remain conscious but undergo a type of 'flashback' experience in which they relive and recount very early scenes from childhood. Some patients have even relived the details of their own births, visualizing and giving circumstantial accounts of how their limbs were shrinking to the size of a child's, as they went back through their lives under the influence of the drug. By recording the unconscious memories thus brought to light, psychiatrists are able to get rapidly and comparatively easily to the source of mental illness."1 Both LSD and ergot alkaloids act on various 5-HT [serotonin] receptor subtypes. Moreover, there is some evidence that LSD is not only a synthetic product but "through the action of other fungi may appear in natural ergot as well"2. As Schenk recommends, this may "make it necessary to reconsider in greater detail the symptoms of ergotism." Placed against the background of mediaeval beliefs, the alleged bewitchment by the devil would seem intensely 'bad trips' or, more accurately, acute schizophrenic attacks [which LSD is known to produce]. Signs of mental disorder caused by ergot poisoning were given supernatural significance.
ERGOTISM The ingestion of grains and cereals infected with ergot by humans and domestic animals results in a condition termed ergotism or St Anthony's Fire. Ergotism typically has three hallmark symptoms [forms], which may occur separately or mixed: [1] vasoconstriction resulting in dry gangrene; [2] epileptiform convulsions; [3] hallucinations and mental disorders. [Hieronymus Bosch's St. Anthony triptych depicts the ravage and mad distortion of ergotism.] High mortality rates were associated with each of the three forms of ergotism. The clinical manifestations of ergotism were known as early as about 350 BC by the Parsees, who wrote of 'noxious grasses that cause pregnant women to drop the womb and die in childbed.' Epidemics of ergotism have been reported as early as 857 AD, although the most serious epidemics occurred between the late 900s to the 1800s. The incidence of epidemics increased in times of famine and heavy rain following severe winters. Under these conditions the rye became heavily infected with ergot. Through the centuries epidemics of ergotism have occurred most frequently and severely in Russia, followed by Germany and France. England has been relatively free from it, which may be attributable to a diet rich in milk, butter, and cheese: dairy products reduce convulsive ergotism. For some still unknown reason, gangrenous ergotism was most prevalent west of the Rhine River, esp. in France, while convulsive ergotism occurred more frequently in the rest of Europe and in North America.
ANIMALS Animals can be affected either by feeding of low quantities of ergot for long periods of time, or by feeding higher levels for a shorter period of time. Clinical symptoms include reduced feed intake, convulsions, incoordination, respiratory distress, rapid pulse, salivation, vomiting, diarrhoea, tremors, abdominal cramps, physical and mental depression, pupils first contracted but later dilated, numbness and coldness of extremities. In severe cases, gangrene may occur. Because ergot toxicity impairs blood flow to the extremities, the breeding herd is particularly affected. Pregnant sows may abort spontaneously, and nursing sows may dry up, seemingly overnight. Even if sows do not dry up completely, their litters often decline in vigour and growth, as milk production is impaired.
GANGRENE Gangrenous ergotism is accompanied by nausea and [burning] pains in the limbs. The extremities may turn black, dry and become mummified, making it possible for infected limbs to spontaneously break off at the joints. Popular names for ergotism - such as 'mal des ardents', 'ignis sacer', 'heiliges Feuer', 'holy fire', or 'St. Anthony's fire' - refer to the gangrenous form of the disease with its severe burning pains. Victims were convinced that they would be consumed by flames or holy fire, being a retribution for their sins. Some inflicted wounds upon themselves to keep the burning sensations away. The patron saint of ergotism victims was St. Anthony, and it was primarily the Order of St. Anthony that treated these patients. "The other form of the disease, which has been named Gangrenous Ergotism by the French writers, and is known in Germany by the vulgar name of Creeping-sickness [Kriebelkrankheit], has been minutely described by various authors. In the most severe form, as it appeared in Switzerland in 1709 and 1716, it commenced, according to Lang, a physician of Luzern, with general weakness, weariness, and a feeling as of insects creeping over the skin; when these symptoms had lasted some days or weeks, the extremities became cold, white, stiff, benumbed, and at length so insensible that deep incisions were not felt; then excruciating pains in the limbs supervened, along with fever, and sometimes bleeding from the nose; finally the affected parts, and in the first instance the fingers and arms, afterwards the toes and legs, shrivelled, dried up, and dropped off by the joints. A healthy granulation succeeded; but the powers of life were frequently exhausted before that stage was reached. The appetite, as in the convulsive form of the disease, continued voracious throughout. In milder cases, as it prevailed at different times in France, nausea and vomiting attended the precursory symptoms, and the gangrenous affection was accompanied by dark vesications. In another variety, which has been witnessed in various parts of Germany, the chief symptoms were spasmodic contraction of the limbs at first, and afterwards weakness of mind, voracity and dyspepsia, which, if not followed by recovery, as generally happened, either terminated in fatuity or in fatal gangrene."3
CONVULSIONS Convulsive ergotism is characterized by epileptiform seizures, ravenous hunger, violent retching, tongue biting and unusual breathing patterns. The various parts of the body become grossly deformed, resulting in permanent nerve damage and long recovery periods. "The first form of the disease, the Convulsive Ergotism of the French writers, has been very well described by Taube, a German physician, as it occurred in the north of Germany in 1770-71. In its most acute form, it commenced suddenly with dimness of sight, giddiness, and loss of sensibility, followed soon by dreadful cramps and convulsions of the whole body, risus sardonicus, yellowness of the countenance, excessive thirst, excruciating pains in the limbs and chest, and a small, often imperceptible pulse. Such cases usually prove fatal in twenty-four or forty-eight hours. In the milder cases the convulsions came on in paroxysms, were preceded for some days by weakness and weight of the limbs, and a strange feeling as if insects crawling over the legs, arms, and face; in the intervals between the fits the appetite was voracious, the pulse natural, the excretions regular; and the disease either terminated in recovery, with scattered suppurations, cutaneous eruptions, anasarca or diarrhoea, or it produced in the end fatal amidst prolonged sopor and convulsions. ... [In another epidemic] the usual symptoms were at first periodic weariness, afterwards an uneasy sense of contraction in the hands and feet, and at length violent and permanent contraction of the flexor muscles of the arms, legs, feet, hands, fingers and toes, with frequent attacks of a sense of burning or creeping on the skin. These were the essential symptoms; but a great variety of accessory nervous affections occasionally presented themselves. There was seldom any disturbance of the mind, except in some of the fatal cases, where epileptic convulsions and coma preceded death."4
OBSTETRICS There are reports as far back as 1582 of European and Chinese midwives using ergot to reduce haemorrhage following childbirth. It has also been used to induce abortions. For a brief period in the early 1800s ergot was called pulvis ad partum, 'powder for parturition.' The uncertainty of dosage from this crude drug often led to uterine spasms and the death of the foetus, so that it came to be known as pulvis ad mortem. "Ergotism epidemics usually occur after the rye harvest, however, when ergot is most toxic. This pattern is borne out by a drop in the fertility rate. In the population in western Europe dependent on rye, a trough in conceptions appeared in August and September after the harvest. One study has shown that in a year of high wheat prices in England, fertility began to decline within three months after the harvest, indicating early foetal loss. One explanation for this drop might be that those who could not afford wheat or good rye were eating cheap, ergot rye."5
HALLUCINATIONS Hallucinations and erratic behaviour may accompany gangrenous or convulsive ergotism. In addition, symptoms occur that are also observed as 'side-effects' of modern psychedelic drugs: nervousness, physical and mental excitement, insomnia and disorientation. The victims perform strange dances with wild, jerky movements accompanied by hopping, leaping and screaming, dancing compulsively until exhaustion lead them to collapse unconscious. It has been argued that one of the reasons for the Salem witch trials was due to the abnormal behaviour of persons affected with ergotism from contaminated rye flour. Numerous more instances of bizarre and destructive behaviour have been attributed to the physiological effects of the disease. Known as la Grande Peur [the Great Fear], a series of startling events occurred in France in late July 1789, when thousands of peasants, panic-stricken, fled into the woods after rumours about brigands coming to seize the newly harvested rye crop. Some isolated incidences of destruction and burning down of castles occurred. Numerous peasants reportedly 'lost their heads' [became manic or insane] and local physicians blamed this to 'bad flour'. "Panic was not the only symptom to appear: during 1789 and 1790 other unusual mental states were widespread in France. In Grenoble a group of 'convulsionaries' made a stir. In keeping with apocalyptic beliefs of the time, they were convinced that the return of the Jews was imminent, that 'Elias has come, that he is getting ready to carry out his mission very soon,' and that the 'reign of a thousand years of Jesus Christ is at the point of beginning.' In Périgord, after the Great Fear, the prophetess Suzette Labrousse began to gain a following. As Clarke Garrett declared, 'in 1789 and 1790, it was widely believed in France that religion and revolution would triumph together'."6
BEWITCHED In her well-documented book Poisons of the Past, the American historian Mary Kilbourne Matossian argues that sporadic outburst of bizarre behaviour and witch-hunts from the 14th to the 18th centuries may have been caused by food poisoning from ergot in rye bread, at that time the staple food in Europe and America. This theory is supported by the fact that indexes of court cases of witchcraft accusation in Europe during 1300-1500 indicate a significant increase of them at the end of summers following cold weather in winter and spring in rye-dependent areas. North of the Alps and Pyrenees the poor depended on bread made of rye or a mixture of rye and other grains, barley, oats and buckwheat. Bread containing 2% ergot can cause a community-wide epidemic of ergotism. [The permitted maximum legal content of ergot in rye in the US today is 0.3%.] "Prior to 1650 it was commonly believed that a supernatural being, benign or malign, was the cause of ergotism. In the century that witnessed the beginning of the scientific revolution, however, many people began to seek natural causes for the symptoms. New labels were given to the disease - 'hysteria', 'vapours', 'hypochondria', 'nervous fever', 'fits', and 'frenzy.' But the search for natural causes did not succeed for over a hundred years. ... 'Outbreaks' of witchcraft were often accompanied by outbreaks of central nervous system symptoms: tremors, anaesthesias, paraesthesias [sensation of pricking, biting, ants crawling on the skin], distortions of the face and eyes gone awry, paralysis, spasms, convulsive seizures, permanent contraction of a muscle, hallucinations, manias, panics, depressions. There were also a significant number of gangrene cases and complaints of reproductive dysfunction, esp. agalactia. Animals behaved wildly and made strange noises; cows too had agalactia. Not every victim of 'bewitchment' had all the symptoms, but most had abnormal experiences and behaved in abnormal ways. ... Many of those affected were young children who could not be accused of feigning possession or having malicious plans to 'get even' with a neighbour, and many died of their symptoms. ... A Russian study of psychic disturbances associated with ergotism, published in 1893, revealed that unpleasant hallucinations and panic were more common than pleasant hallucinations. The victims 'believe themselves to be drowning, or they see a fire and fear to be burned alive. Again others believe that someone is attacking them in order to butcher or strangle them. Some see robbers attacking their homes and others see devils, demanding they give up their faith.' ... The Salem witchcraft affair of 1692 was peculiar. In terms of the number of people accused and executed, it was the worst outbreak of witch persecution in American history, affecting not only Salem Village but eight other communities of Essex County, Massachusetts, as well as Fairfield County, Connecticut. ... What did New Englanders label as 'bewitchment'? In Essex County, Massachusetts, twenty-four of thirty victims of 'bewitchment' in 1692 suffered from 'fits' and the sensations of being pinched, pricked, or bitten, all of which are common symptoms of ergotism. According to English folk tradition, these were the most common specific signs of bewitchment. Some of the other symptoms of bewitchment mentioned in the court record are characteristic of ergotism. These include temporary blindness, deafness, and speechlessness; burning sensations; visions like a 'ball of fire' or a 'multitude of white glittering robes'; and the sensation of flying through the air 'out of body.' Three girls said they felt as they were being torn to pieces and all their bones were being pulled out of joint. Some victims reported feeling 'sick to the stomach' or 'weak', sensing a 'burning' in the fingers, swelling and pain in half of the right hand and part of the face, and being 'lame'."7
RELIGION In the 1740s, the Age of Rationalism, ergot symptoms became a mark of holy, not demonic, possession. Visions, trances, and spasms were read as religious ecstasy. It was a period of religious revival that has been called the Great Awakening. Hundreds, even thousands of people experienced fits, trances, and visions. "The repertoire of symptoms reported in 1741 and 1742 included muscular contractions and spasms; fainting fits followed by a stupor ['lying as if dead'] that may have lasted for many hours; hallucinations, such as being 'out of body', seeing 'a great light in the night', visiting Heaven and Hell; sensations of burning heat and terrible cold; trembling and twitching; numbness; difficulty in speaking and speechlessness; weakness; generalized pain; uterine contractions; leg pain, lesions, and lameness; slow and painful discharge of urine; nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea; ravenous appetite during remissions; moods of joy, despair, emptiness; and various violent and demented behaviour."8
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES Ergot has been instrumental in the spiritual lives of the Greeks; that is the thesis put forward by R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, and Carl Ruck in their book The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries [1978]. They demonstrate that the potion, termed kykeon, used for more than 2000 years in the Eleusinian Mysteries involved a water extract of ergot-contaminated barley [rye wasn't known in ancient Greece] and the sclerotium of Claviceps paspali growing on the wild grass Paspalum distichum. Originally an agrarian cult, the Eleusinian Mysteries were religious rites in honour of the corn goddess Demeter and performed at Eleusis in Attica. The festivities began in Athens with the Lesser Mysteries, which included purification by proclaiming one's debt to Demeter, sea bathing, and sacrificing pigs. This was followed by a festive pilgrimage to Eleusis. Only a select few were allowed to enter the temple of Eleusis, where the Greater Mysteries were unveiled. In preparation for the Greater Mysteries, initiates would fast and rest and make additional unspecified sacrifices. Then they would break the fast by drinking kykeon, a sacred potion coloured purple and made of meal, water, and mint, and they would begin their journey into the unknown. "The ancient testimony about Eleusis is unanimous and unambiguous," write the trio of authors. "Eleusis was the supreme moment in an initiate's life. It was both physical and mystical: trembling, vertigo, cold sweat, and then a sight that made all previous seeing seem like blindness, a sense of awe and wonder at a brilliance that caused a profound silence, since what had just been seen and felt could never be communicated; words were unequal to the task. These symptoms are unmistakably the experience induced by a hallucinogen. Greeks, and indeed some of the most famous and intelligent among them, could experience and enter fully into such irrationality." Wasson and colleagues studied artwork recovered from the ruins of Eleusis and concluded that they not only implicated some potent drink as a major factor in the Mysteries but that a grain of some sort was included in the drink. Although silence as to what took place there was obligatory the 'Homeric Hymn to Demeter' speaks of the Greater Mysteries as follows: "Blissful is he among men on Earth who has beheld that! He who has not been initiated into the holy Mysteries, who has had no part therein, remains a corpse in gloomy darkness." Among the notable initiates were Aristotle, Socrates, Sophocles, Plato, Cicero, and Euripides. One poet claimed that he had seen the beginning and ending of life. He learned that the whole process was in the form of a circle starting and ending in the same place and given by God. As Wasson writes: "Plato tells us that beyond this ephemeral and imperfect existence here below, there is another Ideal world of Archetypes, where the original, the true, the beautiful Pattern of things exists for evermore. Poets and philosophers for millennia have pondered and discussed his conception. It is clear to me where Plato found his 'Ideas'; it was clear to those who were initiated into the Mysteries among his contemporaries too. Plato had drunk of the potion in the Temple of Eleusis and had spent the night seeing the great Vision."9-12 Marion Zimmer Bradley presents a romanticised version of the initiation rites with ergot in her novel Firebrand.
FOLKLORE There are numerous analogies in the traditional folklore of western Europe to the corn-goddess Demeter. [It should be noted that corn in the European tradition - Korn in German, koren in Dutch - refers to small grains, whereas North Americans know it as maize.] In spring, when the wind sets the corn in wave-like motion, German peasants say that 'the corn-mother is running over the field' or is 'going through the corn'. Sitting in the grain and making it grow, the corn-mother should be left undisturbed. Children were warned against straying in the corn because the corn-mother would catch them. When the corn is harvested the corn-mother is believed to be present in the last corn which is left standing on the field. With the cutting of this last handful she is caught, or killed, or driven away by threshing the corn. Mother and offspring had to be separated so that the former would the next year return to produce anew. [This reflects the ancient myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, who was snatched by Hades, the god of the Underworld. Persephone had to spend four months of every year, when winter gripped the land, with Hades. On her return in spring her happy mother made the earth bring forth rich harvests again.] Apart from healthy offspring, the wholesome grain, the Kornmutter [corn-mother] or Roggenmutter [rye-mother] of German/Dutch rural folklore, however, could bring forth dark offspring named Kornmutterkorn or, in Dutch, korenmoederkoorn, later shortened to Mutterkorn or moederkoorn ['mother of corn']. These latter were, and still are, the common names for the ergot fungus, and denoted her illicit or bastard children, alternatively known as Roggenwolf ['rye-wolf'], Wolf, or Wolfszahn ['wolf-tooth']. The Roggenwolf, living in grainfields, was believed to ambush peasants, strangling them. Sir James Frazer, in The Golden Bough, gives many examples of French, German, and Slavonic traditions where the corn-spirit was conceived as a wolf or a dog. It was thought that the Rye-wolf rushed over the field or that the mad Dog was in the corn. These sinister creatures could come and eat or carry off children. [Again, a reflection of the myth of Persephone and Hades.] Cutting the last corn, in various parts of Europe, was considered 'to kill the Dog' or 'to catch the Wolf'. "In various parts of Mecklenburg, where the belief in the Corn-wolf is particularly prevalent, every one fears to cut the last corn, because they say the Wolf is sitting in it. ... Both among the reapers and the binders there is a competition not to be the last to finish. And in Germany generally it appears to be a common saying that 'the Wolf sits in the last sheaf.' ... In Mecklenburg the last bunch of standing corn is itself commonly called the Wolf, and the man who reaps it 'has the Wolf'. The reaper of the last corn is himself called Wolf or the Rye-wolf, if the crop is rye, and in many parts of Mecklenburg he has to support the character by pretending to bite the other harvesters or by howling like a wolf. Of the woman who binds the last sheaf they say, 'The Wolf is biting her' ... and she has to bear the name [Wolf] for a whole year. ... In the island of Rügen not only is the woman who binds the last sheaf called Wolf, but when she comes home she bites the lady of the house and the stewardess, for which she receives a large piece of meat. Yet nobody likes to be the Wolf."13 The Wolf could hide amongst the cut corn in the granary, but would be driven out of the last bundle by the strokes of the flail. Yet the Wolf returned after the winter to renew his activity as corn-spirit in the spring. Although the corn-spirit in other parts of Europe may have assumed such forms as a cock, hare, cat, cow, horse, or pig, the link between corn [rye] and wolf or dog is particularly interesting. It has been suggested that there is an etymological links between ergot and 'warg', 'werga' or 'wearg', Old English words for wolf but also for an outlaw who, for committing an unredeemable crime, is cast out from the community and doomed to wander until he dies. [Varg is Swedish for wolf.] Warg is derived from Indo-European wergh, to strangle, a connection that still can be detected in the German and Dutch words for strangling: würgen or wurgen. In Old English and Old Norse, the gallows is known as the 'warg-tree'. Diseases of the throat accompanied by difficulties in breathing and swallowing, particularly quinsy, bear the name cynanche, which derives from kynos, a dog, and anchein, to throttle. The Roggenwolf of German folklore was believed to ambush and strangle peasants and to 17th-century English physicians ergotism was known by the name 'suffocation of the mother'. The convulsive form of ergotism was termed St. Vitus' dance. Now diagnosed as a streptococcal inflammation resulting in chorea minor, St. Vitus' dance was believed in old times to be produced by dogs, for one prayed to St. Vitus to 'keep the dogs chained]. [See Lyssinum.] In Indo-European mythologies dogs guard the entrance to the Underworld [hellhounds] and must be passed on one's travel to the realm of the dead.
MEDICINE Alkaloids of ergot are widely used in the treatment of migraine headaches. Migraine, physically, is believed to result from a functional disturbance of intra- and extracranial circulation. According to one theory, the neurotransmitter serotonin initially floods the brain, causing a sterile inflammation and vasoconstriction. This leads to visual disturbances such as zigzag spectra, or bright or dark spots before the eyes. Next, the level of serotonin plummets causing the blood vessels to dilate and creating throbbing headache. Ergot derivatives [ergotamine preparations] form a class of drugs used by orthodox medicine to block serotonin receptors. These drugs, sometimes combined with caffeine, are given by oral or rectal route or as nasal sprays. "Most of the effects of ergot alkaloids appear to be mediated through 5-HT [serotonin] receptors, adrenoceptors or dopamine receptors though some effects may be produced through other mechanisms. They all cause stimulation of smooth muscle, some being relatively selective for vascular smooth muscle, and others acting mainly on the uterus. Ergotamine and dihydroergotamine are respectively a partial agonist and an antagonist at alpha-adrenoceptors; bromocriptine is an agonist on dopamine receptors, particularly in the central nervous system; methysergide is an antagonist at 5-HT2-receptors. ... When injected into an anaesthetised animal, ergotamine causes a sustained rise in blood pressure, caused by activation of alpha-adrenoceptors leading to vasoconstriction. At the same time, ergotamine reverses the pressor effects of adrenaline. The vasoconstrictor effect of ergotamine is responsible for the peripheral gangrene of St Anthony's fire, and probably also for some of the effects of ergot on the central nervous system. Methysergide and dihydroergotamine have much less vasocontrictor effect. ... The only use of ergotamine is in the treatment of attacks of migraine unresponsive to simple analgesics. Methysergide is occasionally used for migraine prophylaxis, but its main use is in treating the symptoms of carcinoid tumours [malignant tumours arising in the small intestine and metastasising to the liver; these tumours secrete a variety of hormones, with serotonin being the most important]. Ergotamine often causes nausea and vomiting, and it must be avoided in patients with peripheral vascular disease, because of its vasoconstrictor action. Methysergide also causes nausea and vomiting, but its most serious side-effect, which restricts its clinical usefulness considerably, is retroperitoneal and mediastinal fibrosis, which can impair the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, heart and lungs. The mechanism of this is unknown, but it is noteworthy that similar fibrotic reactions also occur in carcinoid syndrome in which there is a high circulating level of 5-HT [serotonin]."14 Dihydroergotamine can cause nausea, vomiting, constipation, cold sensations, and tingling in the extremities. Of the other ergot alkaloids, ergometrine is used for the prevention of postpartum haemorrhage, and bromocriptine in Parkinson's disease and endocrine disorders. The clinical use of bromocriptine in endocrine disorders includes the suppression of excessive production of growth hormone, leading to gigantism in children and to acromegaly in adults, and the prevention of lactation as well as the suppression of established lactation. [See BROMIUM].
METHYSERGIDE The ergot compound methysergide is a potent serotonin antagonist used in medicine for the treatment of migraine, in a dose of 2 mg taken 2-4 times daily. At higher doses the drug shows psychotropic effects, particularly above 7,5 mg. The visionary threshold dose has been calculated to be 4.3 mg [said to be equivalent to 25 mcg of LSD]. Doses of 8-12 mg given orally to "schizophrenic" children produced effects similar to 100-150 mcg doses of LSD. Methysergide bears a close structural relationship to ergonovine, the specifically uterotonic and haemostatic principle of ergot. 16 Julian conducted a proving with methysergide [in 30c, 7c, 3x] in 1978-79 with 27 provers.
PROVINGS •• [1] Lorinser - collection of experiments by 4-13 provers, c. 1823; method: ingestion of powdered ergot sprinkled on 'thin slices of bread and butter' and eating of bread made of one-third flour of ergot and two-thirds 'sound' flour.
•• [2] Various self-experimentations [Diez, Cordier, Patze, Gross, and others], one experiment on "strong healthy lunatics" [Cottmann], and experiments by Jörg on "himself and pupils", 1820-40s; method: substantial doses of powdered ergot.
All these 'provings' are fragmentary, superficial, and short, the effects rarely being observed for longer than one day.
•• [3] Hooker - effects of repeated doses of oil of ergot on two students and, in 30-75 drop-doses, in six women in labour.
In both students the effects lasted a week, but, again, were superficially described.
•• [4] Glocke - one female prover, c. 1837; 30 and 60 drops of oil of ergot, effects observed for one day.
This prover produced some slight indications of the potential psychotropic effect of ergot: "In five minutes [after 30 drops of the oil], feeling of pleasant buoyancy"; "fancied she saw sparks flitting before her eyes"; "in five minutes [after 60 drops of oil] transient exhilaration."
•• [5] H.C. Allen - "fragmentary proving" on 12 persons [4 females, 8 males], c. 1880-85; method: repeated doses of 2c [3 provers], 30c [3 provers], 100c [3 provers], 200c [4 provers; one of them proved also 100c]. "No person knew what he or she was taking."
H.C. Allen mentions that "since March, 1880, the drug was given out to 72 volunteers, as follows: 2nd potency [16 provers], 3rd potency [4 provers], 6th potency [17 provers], 30th potency [13 provers], 60th potency [5 provers], 100th potency [6 provers], 200th potency [8 provers], placebo [3 provers]." It seems that only the symptoms of the fragmentary proving are recorded in Allen's article published in 1885.17
•• [6] Sauer - 14 provers, c. 1934; method: repeated doses of tincture, 1x, 3x, 6x, or 12x.
•• [7] Gnaiger - 26 provers, 1993; method: 30c for 7 days, to be stopped when distinctsymptoms occur.
•• [8] Diez - 3 provings: the first with 5 provers [3 females, 2 males], May 1993, method: 30c, one daily dose until symptoms occur; the second with 6 provers [4 females, 2 males], November 1993, method: 30c, one daily dose for 8 days or to be stopped when symptoms occur; the third with 7 [female] provers, April 1994; method: same as in second proving.
The 170 references listed by Allen almost exclusively involve reports of ergotism or poisonings or of administration of crude ergot during pregnancy or labour.. Quite a number of Secale symptoms as listed in small repertory rubrics or with Secale as only remedy, are taken from one fatal poisoning case in particular, that of a 22-year young woman who "had taken ergot with the intention of producing miscarriage". The peculiar symptoms include: bluish discolouration of palms of hands; inability to swallow while lying; aversion to everything except sour drinks; exhalations from skin of a vinous odour; could not get rid of the impression that there were two sick persons in the bed, one of whom recovered and the other did not; perspiration all over body except face; vomiting of dark green mucus; sensation as of boiling water running from vulva up to mouth; itching all over body, so as to cause the patient to tear her skin; empty, vacant feeling in head; hesitation in answering questions; sudden waking from sleep and looking wild as if frightened.

[1] Schenk, Book of Poisons. [2] Matossian, Poisons of the Past. [3-4] Christison, A Treatise on Poisons. [5-8] Matossian, ibid. [9] Wasson, Hofmann, and Ruck, The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries. [10] Rudgley, The Encyclopaedia of Psychoactive Substances. [11] Stafford, Psychedelics Encyclopedia. [12] Hudler, Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds. [13] Frazer, The Golden Bough. [14-15] Rang et al, Pharmacology. [16] Ott, Pharmacotheon. [17] H.C. Allen, Secale cornutum; A Fragmentary Proving, by H.C. Allen, M.D. , and the Students of the University of Michigan; Transactions of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, 1885.
Affinity
Muscles [blood vessels; UTERUS]. BLOOD. Nerves. Spinal cord. Limbs. * RIGHT SIDE.
Modalities
Worse: WARMTH; covering; of all affected parts. During menses. Pregnancy. Loss of fluids. Warm drinks; before menses. After eating. Drawing up the limbs.
Better: Cold; bathing; uncovering; cold air. Rocking. Forcible extension; stretching out the limbs. Rubbing. After vomiting.
Main symptoms
M Great RESTLESSNESS [compare Ars.].
Attacks of excitement.
M Sarcasm and contempt.
Mocking at his relatives.
Sardonic laughing.
Desire for satire.
Censorious, vicious, and pugnacious. [6 provers Diez and Gnaiger]
In the second proving of Diez, one female prover got so unusually excited that she wanted to trip up uninvolved persons or to spit them in the face.
M Confusion; forgetfulness.
Undertakes many things, perseveres in nothing.
Feels constantly as if she had forgotten something.
Dull and detached.
• "Feel as dull and stupid as an Alzheimer patient." [Diez]
Indifference to everything.
Indifference to exposure of person.
Insensible and unconcerned.
[Hydergine, a derivative of three ergotoxine alkaloids, was originally developed to improve blood flow in the brains of stroke victims and people with epilepsy. The drug acts as a cerebral vasodilator and has proved valuable in geriatric medicine. "It so improves oxygenation of the brain that it is widely used in Europe as an adjunct to surgery, to give surgeons more time in the case of cardiac arrest, to resuscitate the patient before brain damage from lack of oxygen supervenes. Hydergine has also shown valuable stimulant effects even in healthy young adults, and has been shown to improve mental processing and performance in 9-12 mg daily doses, making it one of the most sought-after 'smart drugs'."1]
M Shameless.
• "All idea of modesty lost." [Kent]
[Shame and scandal in the family.]
[The repertory has included Secale in the mind rubrics 'Shameless, exposes the person' and 'Wants to be naked'. They were observed in cases of ergotism and were due to the intolerable tingling and burning - vasoconstriction - caused by ergot.]
c Mental disturbances observed in ergotism epidemics.
Fear of enemies.
Fear of divine wrath.
Feeling of being pinched, choked, bitten, or suffocated.
Delusion of being consumed by flames, of being burned alive.
Delusion of drowning.
Delusion he will be murdered.
Delusion sees devils demanding him to give up his faith.
Compulsive laughing.
Delusion sees saints and gods; delusion being in paradise.
G Very HOT.
Yet the skin feels COLD when touched.
Internal heat, external coldness.
• "Sensation of boiling water running up from vulva to mouth." [Hughes]
• "The surface [of hypogastrium] did not burn, but felt as though blood vessels were filled with hot blood." [H.C. Allen]
G BURNING HEAT [subjective], like fire, sparks of fire.
Burning + dryness [stomach and skin].
Desire to UNCOVER.
[These are poisoning symptoms; most provers experienced chilliness.]
G Ravenous, uncontrollable appetite.
• "Appetite much increased; was very hungry, ashamed to eat as much as I desired." [prover Allen, 200c]
• "Unpleasant pressure in stomach, which increased to such an extent as to obstruct breathing; therewith strong desire to eat." [Hughes]
• "Voracious appetite excited by taking a glass of strong wine." [Hughes]
G THIRST; craves acids.
Desire for cold drinks or ice.
G Desire for sweets and SUGAR.
Aversion to sweets, particularly chocolate. [5 provers Diez]
Desire for milk. [3 provers Diez]
Coffee < [3 provers Diez], even smell of coffee is unpleasant [1 prover]. G Sleep deep, heavy, and long. Or: Sleep restless, with distressing dreams. • "Disturbed by distressing dreams. Surrounded by danger, constantly trying to escape evils. Sometimes my family were sick unto death, or the house on fire; again I was pouring water from one bucket into another to free it from lizards and reptiles, that would crawl over the sides of the vessels and endangered my children. ... Night after night my dreams would continue of this character. I would waken, my head would be in such distress, not from pain but oppression. I would turn my pillow and change my position to endeavour to forget my dreams, and after some time would again fall asleep, to be awakened by another equally unpleasant dream." [prover Allen, 200c] Sleeplessness, nearly all night, with exhilaration; with restlessness. Sleeplessness of drug addicts. G < WARM AIR; warm bed; room; stove; wraps. G Dark, thin, foul discharges. • Menses: flow bright red and coagulable; many clots. Offensive in odour; a cold cadaverous smell." [prover Allen, 200c] • "Foetid breath and exhalations, so that it was almost impossible to remain in the room even with a constant circulation of air." [Hughes; poisoning case] G GREEN pus [boils, carbuncles, leucorrhoea]. • "One of my provers with the 200th developed a peculiar symptom. There arose a number of small boils, esp. on the right side, up to the nape of the neck. One of them was on the cheek about the angle of the jaw; it was as large as the end of the finger. It was painful, slow in maturing, and finally evacuated a green pus. These characteristics were true of all the boils. This prover did not entirely recover from the effects of the drug for nearly three years. The boils had a dark, purplish base and left a number of ecchymosed spots for weeks."2 G Ailments of old people; drunkards; smokers. G Ailments from / since an abortion. • "Some women are so insane that though they die they will get rid of their offspring. On all hands women say, 'I have had no health since I aborted.' The worst state of health is produced by ergot; it establishes a miasm as deep as psora itself. The desire to destroy the offspring is an engraftment on psora and by ergot she takes on a miasm as dangerous as sycosis or syphilis." [Kent] G Circulatory disturbances. Haemorrhagic diathesis. [haemorrhages, ecchymoses, petechiae, varicoses, tingling, numbness, gangrene, etc.]. ATHEROSCLEROSIS. G Passive bleeding. Blood dark, non-coagulable, thin, or mixed with dark clots. G NUMBNESS. • "I then found that she had taken several ergot pills, and her pains being relieved, she began to complain of numbness in her fingers and toes, numbness in left hand and arm to shoulder and head, numbness in right arm to elbow, numbness of feet, legs heavy. She exclaims, 'Where are my hands? I can not feel them.' She was not conscious of having hands, and did not feel severe pricks of a pin. ... This sensation may be important [for prescribing Secale] in paralytic conditions, such as sometimes follow diphtheria, where patients are not aware of the position of their hands or feet and can not tell where they are unless they see them."3 P Acuteness of hearing. And Empty feeling in head. • "Great acuteness of hearing, every word, even spoken in the gentlest tone, re-echoing in her head, and thrilling through every nerve of her body." [Hughes; poisoning case] P Claudicatio intermittens. Raynaud's disease. P Pustular eruptions. • [Dr. R.B. Johnstone, of Pittsford, N.Y., writes:] "In 1883-84, during the building of the West Shore Railroad, I was called upon to treat many of the Italian employees for an eruption upon the body in many places, but usually on the shoulders, neck and inner surface of the upper arms. In the majority of the cases it was on the right side alone, but if on both sides was always worse on the right. The eruption would begin in a small point, like the prick of a pin, which would soon assume a pimple-like form and finally become pustular and as large as a small pea. At other times they would appear as large as a small boil [half an inch across the base], of a dark bluish hue, shading off to the healthy colour of the skin an inch or more from centre of boil. They were intensely painful to touch, aching, burning and itching, better from light rubbing, worse from scratching, worse from heat. The small ones would dry up, leaving no cicatrix, but the large ones would fill slowly with a bright yellow pus-like material, or at times a bloody, watery serum, remaining open for days, having extremely painful edges and base, and discharging towards its close a thick, dirty, offensive serum. They were decidedly indolent in character, and left a prominent cicatrix. Cool air blowing over the eruption would relieve the itching and burning, but not the pain. Secale, Lachesis, Causticum were the remedies chiefly indicated. Having learned that the Italians ate largely of rye bread made of a very poor and cheap quality of flour, while other nationalities [not eating the rye bread] did not suffer from it at all, I attributed the eruption to poisoning by Ergot in the bread; and if a patient presented without an interpreter I usually gave Secale, which would cure about seven cases in ten." ... [H.G.K., a miller of Pittsford, N.Y., informs me that:] "he is unable to grind rye even for a short time. Upon entering a rye mill, had a sensation of constriction in the throat, great difficulty of breathing; difficult inspiration; expiration accompanied by soreness all over the chest; oppression of the chest; soreness of the chest; intercostal pains; pricking of the tongue. ... The foregoing symptoms are distinctively of rye grinding; when grinding wheat no symptoms follow. He also informs me that in two rye mills in Rochester he knows a number of individuals engaged therein who suffer as above [skin eruptions] with the addition of an eruption particularly on the neck, chest, behind the ears and around the waist. The eruption is pustular, itching violently, and discharges a yellow matter. One man he knew was compelled to give up rye grinding because of the many boils and carbuncles. Nearly all rye grinders have enlarged finger joints and poor teeth."4 [1] Ott, Pharmacotheon. [2] H.C. Allen, in Kimball, An Involuntary Proving of Secale. [3] Kimball, An Involuntary Proving of Secale; Transactions of the International Hahnemannian Association, 1890-91, no. 4. [4] H.C. Allen, Secale cornutum; A Fragmentary Proving, by H.C. Allen, M.D. , and the Students of the University of Michigan; Transactions of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, 1885. Rubrics Mind Confusion, as to his identity, sense of duality [1]. Contemptuous [1], for relations [1/1]. Defiant [1]. Delirium, abandons her relatives [1/1], wants to be naked in delirium [2]. Delusions, as if someone is in the bed with him [1], that left and right side of face do not match together [due to swollen, distorted sensation in left side] [1G], of falling when awakening [1], room is like the foam of a troubled sea [1/1]. Fear of death before menses [1]. Wants to fight [1]. Forgetful after coition [1]. Feels constantly as if he had forgotten something [1D]. Forsaking relations [1/1]. Laughing, beside herself, claps hands over head, after abortion [2/1], sardonic [2]. Mania with deeds of violence [1]. Mocking, sarcasm [1]. Undertaking many things, persevering in nothing [1D]. Vertigo While lying, as if falling down with the bed, on closing eyes [1K]. During menses [2]. Occipital [1K]. Rocking > [1/1].
Head
Pain, > bathing head with eau de Cologne [1H], < pressure on nape of neck [1/1], on entering a warm room [1A]. Vision Colours, blue points [1], bright [1], dark [1]. Flashes [1]. Lightnings [1]. Lost, on turning head [1/1]. Triplopia [1]. Throat Choking, from sensation of swelling from abdomen to throat [1K]. Stomach Coldness, extending to body [1/1]. Eructations, smelling of burnt horn [1A]. Nausea, > coffee [1H], followed by sleepiness [1H], from ice cream [1D], vomiting does not > [1H]. Vomiting after drinking [2].
Abdomen
Pain, pressing, right hypochondrium, < lying on right side [1D]. Female Menses, copious, with nymphomania [1], protracted, not ceasing entirely almost until next period [1], cease while walking [1], only while walking [1]. Respiration Difficult, > rocking [1/1].
Back
Pain, cervical region, extending to eyes [1D].
Limbs
Discolouration, blueness, of feet, in morning [1G]. Insensibility, hands, to pricking with a pin [1K]. Sensation of swelling, soles of feet, when walking [1K].
Skin
Eruptions, boils with greenish pus [2/1].
* Repertory additions: [A] = H.C. Allen, A Fragmentary proving of Secale cornutum.
[D] = S. Diez, Secale cornutum, Eine Annäherung an eine Arznei; Doc. Hom., Bd 14, 1994.
[G] = proving Gnaiger, in Ruth v. Bonin-Schulmeister, Arzneimittelprüfung von Secale cornutum; Doc. Hom., Band 14, 1994.
[H] = Hughes, Cyclopaedia.
[K] = Kimball, An Involuntary Proving of Secale.
Food
Aversion: [2]: Chocolate [D]. [1]: Fat; ice cream [D]; meat; sweets [D].
Desire: [2]: Sour; sour + sweets; sugar; sweets. [1]: Bread; cold drinks; cold food; ham [D]; lemonade; milk [D]; pickles; refreshing things; smoked meat [D]; wine.
Worse: [1]: Beer; coffee [D]; coffee, smell of [D]; fat [D]; ice cream [D]; warm drinks.
* Repertory additions: [D] = S. Diez [see above].