294 STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



The mushrooms have been valued at 25 cents per pound, which 

 is probably considerably below the average market price for a good 

 article. It should also be remarked that the amounts given in this 

 table are the digestible and hence available constituents of the foods. 

 The only exception to this is in the case of the fats and carbohy- 

 drates of the mushrooms, no digestion experiments having been 

 reported on these constituents. In the absence of data we have 

 assumed that they were entirely digested. 



The beef and beans are typical animal and vegetable foods of the 

 proteid class. A glance at the table will show how markedly they 

 differ from the mushrooms. The latter are nearest the cabbage in 

 composition and nutritive value. The similarity between the cab- 

 bage and the Agaricus campestris here analyzed is very striking. 

 The potato is somewhat poorer in fat, but very much richer than the 

 mushroom in carbohydrates. 



The figures in the last column will vary of course with fluctua- 

 tions in the market price, but such variation will not interfere at any 

 time with the demonstration that purchased mushrooms are not a 

 poor man's food. Here we find that one cent invested in cabbage 

 at i YI cents per pound, gives 93 calories of nutrition, while the same 

 amount invested in Agaricus campestris, the common mushroom of 

 our markets would give but 5.3 calories, although they are almost 

 identical so far as nutritive value is concerned. 



The same sum invested in wheat flour, with its high carbohydrate 

 and good proteid content, would yield 658 calories or one-sixth the 

 amount necessary to sustain a man at work for one day. The 

 amount of mushrooms necessary for the same result is a matter of 

 simple computation. 



Mushrooms, however, have a distinct and very great value as a 

 food of the third class, that is, as condiments or food accessories, and 

 their value as such is beyond the computation of the chemist or the 

 physiologist, and doubtless varies with different individuals. They 

 are among the most appetizing of table delicacies and add greatly to 

 the palatability of many foods when cooked with them. It is surely 

 as unfair to decry the mushroom on account of its low nutritive 

 value, as it is wrong to attribute to it qualities which are nothing 

 short of absurd in view of its composition. In some respects its place 

 as a food is not unlike that of the oyster, celery, berries, and other 

 delicacies, Worked out on the basis of nutritive value alone they 

 would all be condemned ; the oyster for instance presents a showing 

 but little better than the mushroom, and vastly inferior, so far as 

 economy is concerned, to the common potato. This, too, for oysters 



