Toadstool Poisoning and its Treatment 



Formerly frequent allusion was made to the possibility of poisoning 

 by decomposition products from putrefactive changes in mushrooms. 

 Not a single case has come to the writer's notice where this form of 

 poisoning has actually occurred. In many reported cases of poisoning 

 it is distinctly stated they were eaten soon after gathering ; in none does 

 the reporter mention any suspicion of poisoning of this nature. 



At one time very many mushrooms were supposed to be poison- 

 ous. We now know that there are only a few dangerous ones, and 

 where serious poisoning occurs it seems clearly to be due to some defi- 

 nite and constant poisons contained in certain fungi. We shall not deal 

 here with the irritant poisons, as they are not dangerous and usually 

 Nature gets rid of them easily, but shall consider the poisons of the 

 Amanita muscaria or "Fly mushroom," the A. bulbosus vernus Bull, or 

 A. verna, and the A. phalloides or "death cup." The writer has not had 

 any personal experience with poisoning by these in man, but bases his 

 observations upon over one hundred experiments made upon lower ani- 

 mals.* This is a distinct advantage in reaching any conclusion, as the facts 

 are definite without any doubt as to the kind or quantity of the poison 

 taken. In many of the reports of poisoning by mushrooms in man no 

 mention of the species is made. In all these cases many kinds have been 

 mixed together in preparing them for the table and it has never been known 

 how many of the poisonous and how many of the edible ones have been 

 eaten by any one individual partaking of the dish. Of course the fluid 

 in which they are cooked contains some of the poison. This explains 

 why some patients recover after having eaten several mushrooms while 

 others die from a part of one only. (See report of six cases by Dr. G. E. 

 Caglieri, New York Med. Record, August 28, 1897; a l so Dr. Berry's 

 cases reported by Prentiss, Philadelphia Med. Journal, September 24, 

 1898.) Then, too, different poisonous species may be mixed together. 

 The symptoms produced by the different Amanitae poisons are quite 

 different. Those containing irritant poisons may be taken with those 

 containing deadly poisons. This accounts for the great variety of symp- 

 toms presented in cases reported. 



*A11 of the toadstools used have been very kindly furnished and identified by Capt. 

 Chas. Mcllvaine. Unfortunately only fifteen experiments could be made with the fresh 

 fungi while the writer was at the University of Pennsylvania. Since leaving there it 

 has been impossible to get any in a fresh state, and the other experiments have been 

 made either with dried fungi or alcoholic or glycerine extracts of the fresh. 



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