TOADSTO OL-EA TING. ^g 



Our symptoms were not unlike those exhibited in g, person using 

 tobacco for the first time. Dizziness, nausea, purging, perspiration 

 with alternate cold spells, all passed over us within an hour, so rapid 

 is the effect of the mushroom-virus. Two wineglasses of whiskey and 

 sweet-oil (equal parts) neutralized the poison, and in a few hours we 

 were no worse for the experience. 



I would prescribe this remedy in all cases rather than the use of 

 emetics. Omit the whiskey, if you please, or substitute vinegar for 

 spirits, but take sweet-oil liberally in case of a mistake. I believe 

 the Italians eat many dangerous fungi with impunity, because, when 

 fresh, their properties are changed by sweet-oil; preserved, they are 

 neutralized by pickle. Either of these elements renders harmless the 

 peculiar alkali, to a superfluity of which mushrooms owd their noxious 

 qualities. 



We must use the same discretion daily employed in selecting other 

 food. Who would willingly eat tainted meat? Is it so very uncom- 

 mon to find a goose or duck too strong to be palatable ? Who has 

 not been poisoned by bad oysters, stale fish, or overripe fruit ? 



Because many mushrooms do not agree with the human system, 

 it does not follow that they are deadly poisons. I have friends who 

 do not jn-etend to distinguish varieties, but eat whatever has an appe- 

 tizing flavor. (I do not consider this safe ground, because the inabil- 

 ity to identify any one variety is doubtless the cause of many cases of 

 poisoning.) Yet, although they claim to have made their breakfast 

 from such obscurely known kinds as that which I afterward classified 

 as the smeared cortinarius {Cortinarius collinitus), I have never 

 known them to acknowledge any other sensation than an intense 

 desire to hunt for more. Julie and I had one day eaten plentifully 

 of the honey-colored mushroom [Agarictis melleus). On looking it 

 up in Greville, a well-knoAvn Scotch authority, I found the following 

 notice: "This species is said to be freely eaten on tlie Continent; at 

 least Fries quotes the authority of Trattinick for the fact. But, on 

 the other hand, Persoon gives it a bad character. In this he is sup- 

 ported by Paulet, who tried its effect upon a dog. The poor animal 

 died twelve hours after receiving the poisonous fungus." 



Notwithstanding such a warning, it continues to be a favorite 

 article of diet with us to-day. I think it may be noxious raw,but 

 that the heat kills the virus. It must be remembered that toadstool- 

 eating is by no means an exact science. Fungus-eaters are daily 

 making discoveries. Twenty years ago the two leading authorities 

 of England and America, Berkeley and Curtis, considered the Copri- 

 nus comatus poisonous. 



There are but two ways in which it is proper to cook mushrooms. 

 By far the majority are best broiled on a fine-wire gridiron. They 

 should be sprinkled with salt and (if the species is well known as an 

 esculent) red pepper, buttered as the fire browns them. Otherwise, 



