Toadstool Poisoning and its Treatment 



being .034 gram, (dried) per kilo of body weight, while .103 gram, 

 (dried) per kilo, was the average for the latter fungus. 



POISONING BY AMANITA PHALLOIDES. 



The symptoms described in man are very similar to those caused by 

 the A. verna, except that the convulsions are less constant and cyanosis 

 is not mentioned. In some cases vomiting and purging are prominent 

 symptoms. There is dizziness and fainting, extreme ashy pallor, cold 

 skin covered with sweat, subnormal temperature, muscular twitchings 

 and occasional convulsions and somnolence which deepens into coma 

 and lasts until death, which usually occurs two or three days after eating 

 the poison. Sometimes the gastro-intestinal symptoms are less severe 

 or may be absent, though they are usually present; in that case the 

 nervous symptoms are more prominent, particularly the convulsions and 

 circulatory disturbance. 



In experiments upon animals the convulsions were not observed so 

 constantly as with the A. verna. Out of twenty-five dogs poisoned by the 

 Amanita phalloides, convulsions only occurred twice, while twelve frogs 

 injected with different preparations (dried toadstool and glycerine and 

 alcoholic extracts of the fresh) failed to show a convulsive seizure in a 

 single instance. It seems to be difficult for mycologists to draw a sharp 

 line between the A. verna and the A. phalloides and say to which of 

 these two certain fungi belong. This may explain why convulsions are 

 recorded more frequently in persons poisoned by this toadstool than in 

 animals poisoned by it. Frogs are very susceptible to poisons acting 

 upon the spinal cord, and all of those poisoned by lethal doses of A. 

 verna had convulsions, while none of those poisoned by the A. phal- 

 loides had any. It would therefore appear from this striking difference 

 in the physiological actions that the two are separate and distinct. 



The circulatory and gastro-intestinal symptoms were quite similar to 

 those caused by the A. verna. 



A. phalloides is less toxic than the A. verna, but more so than the 

 A. muscaria, the average lethal dose of the dried fungus (eight experi- 

 ments) for dogs, where no antidote was used, being .117 gram, per 

 kilo. 



The antidotal value of atropine is very slight, if indeed it has any 

 action other than removing the temporary cardiac inhibition. The ani- 

 mals very seldom died from this, but mostly from the late effects after 



629 



