The Red Clubhead

While the reasons for the ergotoxicosis remained obscure, ergot was mentioned for the first time in a Nurnbergian manuscript of the 15(th) century, for the treatment of uterine problems. In 1582 the city of Frankfurt physician Adam Lonicer published in his "Kreuterbuch" an ergot-containing medication for the treatment of menstrual cramps. Only in the 17(th) century, did the French botanist Denis Dodart and the Swiss physician Johann Conrad Brunner discover in ergot the causative agent of gangrenous and convulsive ergotism. The removal of the sclerotia from edible seed and the growing acceptance of the potato as food resulted in a significant reduction of the ergotism. The financial problems of the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony, caused by underoccupancy of their infirmaries and cultural and political disruptions since the 16(th) century, led to their integration into the Order of the Knights of Malta. In the early 18(th) century two physicians at the University of Tubingen mentioned in their scientific treatise that midwives used ergot for the promotion of obstetric labor. Both physicians warned of the dangers in its use as a medication in obstetrics. Nonetheless, midwives and obstetricians continued with their ergot applications. Only by the publication of the U.S. physician Oliver Prescott Jr. in 1813, in which he underpinned the importance of ergot in obstetrics - if correctly administered - the ergot medicine found its way into European orthodox medicine.