MUSHROOM POISONIM 



or fall intu minor error. Borne reasons for even the well trained 

 Btudent going a bit wrong will appear in other raphs. li he 



will hut reporl his error in the manner indicated belon much, 

 or even all, may be forgiven or even approved. 



Mushroom poisoning must have been fairly frequent rly 



times since ii is well known thai the Itoimi i in 



greal quantity l>"th as delicacies and as dailj food. Paulet, in 

 L793, records their collection in R i, China, Elungary, ftalj and 

 especially in Tuscany, and their public sale in Pekin, rad 



and Florence. Tims they have numbered among their victims the 

 family of the Greek poet Euripedes, .1 wife, two sons and a daughter, 

 Pope Clement VII, Emperor Jovian, Emperor Claudius, King 

 Charles VI of Prance, and Czar Alexsis of Russia . The Prii 

 Conti nearly lost her life through mistaking Imanita muscaria 

 I'm- l. caesarea. Definite knowledge "i the number "i fatalities 

 from mushrooms begins with Paulet who states thai from the 

 year lTl'.i to L788 there were a hundred deaths in tin- environs "f 

 Paris alone. More recentlj (1883) Bardy reported 60 cases in 

 t; years in Les Vosges, and Guillard (1885) estimated 100 <leailis 

 annually in southwestern Prance. Palck collected 53 cases in 

 Germany with in deaths and [noko in Japan reports 181 case* 

 mushroom intoxication in 8 years (1889). In this country Palmer, 

 of Boston, collected 33 cases with _l deaths and Porster, of Chai 

 town, 11 cases with 11 deaths 1 . Bagnall 3 quotes ''lark and Smith 

 to the effect that in one ten day period (September, 1911), 22 

 deaths occurred in New Xork City and vicinity. L5 in 1906 and 

 ::i> cases with 1l! deaths in L905. In 1913 there were 26 cases of 

 poisoning in Hartford in a few weeks. In 1900 Gillol found over 

 l'iii) authentic cases of mushroom poisoning mostly in Prance (123 

 fatal due to Vmanita phalloides) and Ford added nearly as nn 

 more recorded in the German, English and French Literature 

 L900. Sartory, in France, records for the Bummer <»f L912, 249 



3es of fungus poisoning with 153 deaths. Of these 90 curred 



in 15 days 1 . Ford is convinced that the majority <>r 

 find their way into medical literature. I do not believe that 1 

 do. Tims in one summer there were unreported 2 • :<>t fal 



in Baltimore, 2 deaths in Cleveland, 9 poisoned in I" 

 with several deaths, and 10 in Toronto with 2 deaths 

 estimates the annual deaths in the United 8 

 or more, as many are not reported. M\ own r< 

 complete, for southeastern Michigan only, for i" 77 



cases with 16 deaths. None reported medically M un- 



doubtedly escape publicity. 



