Physician Scouts Idea Manchester Jews Are Afflicted with Ergotism

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The British Medical Journal prints a letter from Dr. Bernard Hirson, honorary physician to the home for aged and needy Jews in Manchester, dealing with the article on Ergot poisoning published recently in the British Medical Journal, which has aroused a good deal of interest among the Jewish community.

“Having been associated with a number of Jewish institutions for a considerable period,” he writes, “and practicing in a thickly populated Jewish neighborhood, it seems strange that neither my colleagues, whom I have consulted on the subject, nor myself have ever come across cases such as those described.

“It is quite true that brown, or rye, bread is an important factor in some Jewish diets; still the figures given as to the amount of ergot it contains appear very much exaggerated, and do not approach the 22.85 grains stated to be consumed by the individual in one day.

“I append the following report of rye bread submitted for analysis: ‘I beg to report I have examined the loaf of ‘rye’ bread received from you yesterday for the possible presence of ergot. I have submitted the bread to a careful chemical and microscopical analysis and I find it is perfectly free from this poison. I have also examined the rye and wheaten flours from which this bread is mad, and I find they contain no trace of ergot or any other poisonous ingredient.'”