Mage Joan

"Ergot is actually a kind of fungus. To be precise, it should be called'ergot'."

Qiao An took out a pair of tweezers from the storage bag, picked up the purple horn-shaped particles in the glass tray, and patiently explained to His Majesty the Emperor.

"The ergot bacteria are usually parasitic in the ovary of gramineous plants. The sclerotium formed is dark purple on the outside and off-white on the inside, resembling horns, with complex ingredients and bitter taste."

"Excessive intake of ergot bacteria by humans and animals may cause serious symptoms of poisoning, such as muscle gangrene, convulsions, confusion, hallucinations, etc.-this is also the impression of ordinary people of'sacred fire syndrome'."

"Dr. Vinda, you just said that gramineous plants are easily parasitized by ergot bacteria, and wheat, rye, and barley, as the popular staple food, as well as oats for horses, are all gramineous crops. Are they all infected with ergot bacteria? Risk?" Roland frowned.

Qiao An nodded frankly.

"Common grains are almost all hosts of ergot bacteria. Both humans who use cereals as their staple food and livestock that use oats as feed are likely to suffer from the ‘sacred fire’ disease due to ingestion of ergot bacteria.”

"According to this, any area where flour is the staple food should have an outbreak of torch. But from the reality, the frequency of torch disease is not as high as imagined, and not all people who eat bread will get sick, and The epidemic will disappear on its own after a period of time. What is the reason for this?"

His Majesty the Emperor seriously asked Qiao An for advice.

The young mage smiled.

"Your Majesty, ergot, a fungus, can grow easily only in an environment with high humidity and high moisture. In reality, there are not many environments that meet this hydrothermal climate condition."

"Yesterday afternoon, I went to the university library to check the government's public yearbook data and found that most of the epidemic areas where the torch disease broke out had exceptionally plentiful rain last autumn and high humidity. The grains are prone to damp and breed ergots. After the grains are harvested, if you don’t If the ergot fungus is removed and sent directly to the mill for processing, a part of the ergot will be mixed with the grains and be ground, and finally mixed with flour, making it indistinguishable."

"Using this contaminated flour to bake bread or biscuits does not guarantee the removal of toxins, and it may still cause poisoning after accidental ingestion."

“The climate in most of the Far East is cold, and the grains are ripened every year. The flour that people eat this winter and the beginning of spring is actually the last batch of grains stored at the end of last fall. Therefore, the ergot mixed in the autumn grain last year was not used until this spring. Baked into bread and served on the table, many consumers have symptoms of poisoning. From a macro perspective, it is manifested as a pandemic of "sacred fire" that has been concentrated in many areas in a short period of time."

"But there are still many grain farming areas. Last fall did not experience an abnormal climate of humid, hot and rainy weather. The rate of grain infection with ergot bacteria did not reach the critical point, so there would be no major outbreak of torch disease."

"Your Majesty may have also noticed that most of the hardest-hit areas of the torch are in remote villages, often with inconvenient transportation. The local harvest is mainly self-produced and sold. Coupled with imperfect flour processing and storage conditions, ergot poisoning is particularly common. ."

"On the other hand, in cities with large populations and developed industries, there are few cases of torch. This is mainly because the price of land around the city is higher, mostly residential, commercial, and industrial land. Food is too uneconomical."

“Urban residents have neither the conditions nor the willingness to open up wasteland and grow food by themselves. The flour for their daily meals is purchased from the market. Many households do not even bother to bake bread by themselves, and go directly to the bakeries to buy ready-made food. The flour for the shops and bakeries is sourced from other grain-producing areas, and there are even bulk grain futures imported from the New World across the ocean."

"The numerous procurement channels, coupled with the strict control of grain quality by grain merchants, ensure that grains contaminated with ergot usually do not flood into cities in large numbers. Therefore, statistically speaking, the probability of ergot poisoning among citizens is far lower than Residents of remote villages."

"Let's talk about the witchcraft case in Huyang Village. Since the'Feast of Gods' is a traditional festival practiced by the local dwarf community for many years, it can be seen that Tituba and others know that taking ergot will cause hallucinations, and they also know that strict control of the dosage will not Health caused obvious harm."

"However, dwarfs may not know that ergots mixed with grains, even if they are ground into powder and baked at high temperature to make biscuits, still cannot completely remove toxins. Excessive consumption may lead to poisoning, which manifests as the so-called'sacred fire'. "

"Tituba shared the biscuits he also ate with the girls who came to the house as guests. As a result, the girls were poisoned by food. It can only be said to be unintentional. I don't see any intention to harm people. Maybe this is Populus euphratica. The truth about the village'witchcraft case'."

Finally, Qiao Ann picked up a small biscuit with tweezers, looked at the candlestick, and said with deep feeling:

"Your Majesty, thanks to your Holy Mind’s judgment, Tituba and others have been protected from wrongdoing. However, this is not enough. It is necessary to publicize the ergot poisoning nationwide, guide the public to be vigilant, and urge grain storage and flour processing. The industry has improved the technology and carefully eliminated the ergots mixed into the grains, so as to fundamentally prevent the recurrence of the torch disease."

"That's great, Dr. Vinda, this is exactly the professional advice I want!"

His Majesty the Emperor stood up, patted the young mage on the shoulder, smiled, and bright eyes appeared.

"I suddenly thought of a good idea, Dr. Vinda, why don't you accompany me to the broadcasting company tomorrow morning and record this issue of "Fireside Talk" as a special guest, and talk about your views on the "Holy Fire Syndrome" and "Hu Yang Village". The witchcraft case' these two current public opinion hotspots."

"This...isn't necessary?" Qiao An's face was embarrassed.

"Of course it is necessary, Dr. Vader, although I am the monarch of this country, but when it comes to professional topics such as epidemic prevention, the audience is more willing to accept your opinions than my layman's opinions."

Qiao An admitted that His Majesty's words were reasonable, but when he thought of speaking to thousands of broadcast listeners, he couldn't help being nervous, worried that his words would not express his meaning and that he would be embarrassed in the studio.

Roland clearly saw his concerns, and took his shoulders and smiled and encouraged.

"This is a pre-produced recording and broadcasting program. It shouldn't be a few staff except you, me and the host. No audience will stare at you. It doesn't matter if you say something wrong, and it will be done later. The editing process is guaranteed not to embarrass you."

Your Majesty invited him again, but Qiao An was really hard to shirk, so he had to bite the bullet and agreed to accompany him to the Magic Broadcasting Company tomorrow to record the show.

…

·Historical Materials: The Fire of Saint Anthony

The ergot of cereals was poisoned after being eaten, and the limbs turned black and shrunk. Christians in the Middle Ages regarded it as a punishment from God and called it "sacred fire disease."

There are many common names for ergot poisoning, such as "Anger Pain" (French) "maldesardents", Holy Fire (Latin) "ignissacer", Holy Fire (German) "heiligesFener" or "St. Anthony's Fire".

The patron saint of ergot poisoners is St. Anthony, and the people who treat these patients are mainly Anthony’s followers. Therefore, ergot poisoning is also called the "Fire of St. Anthony."

…

The record of ergot poisoning first appeared in the early Middle Ages and was the cause of a collective poisoning incident of thousands of people.

This disease related to ergot has been obscured for a long time.

Ergot poisoning has two characteristics: one is gangrenous and the other is convulsive.

When people eat flour that contains ergot, they will become poisoned and develop cramps in their limbs and muscles, and then feel numbness in their hands, feet, vaginas, and teeth. Then the muscles in these parts will gradually ulcerate and peel off until death, which is terrible.

Livestock eating grasses infected with ergot bacteria can also cause serious poisoning.

Ergot disease was rampant in medieval Europe for centuries. It once became a serious hazard to humans and animals. It caused a large number of pregnant women to abort and claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people again and again. It was called the demon of the Middle Ages.

Until recently, most countries in Europe, including certain regions of Russia, have recorded similar epidemic outbreaks of ergot poisoning. The latest chapter address of Master Qiao An: https://www.readwn.com/book/102085.htmlMaster Qiao’s reading address: https://www.readwn.com/read/102085/Master Qiao An txt download address: https://www.readwn.com/down/102085.htmlMaster Qiao An’s mobile phone reading: https://m.readwn.com/read/102085/ In order to facilitate the next reading, you can click on the "Favorites" below to record the reading record of this time (Chapter 2787 The Mystery of Lysergic (Ⅱ) (Added for Dameng S is equal to kBlnW)), and you can see it next time you open the bookshelf! If you like "Master Qiao An", please recommend this book to your friends (QQ, blog, WeChat, etc.), thank you stand by! (www.readwn.com)