BROWN OR OCHRE-SPORED AGARICS 



These are not usually regarded as poisonous. 



THE GENUS PHOLIOTA 



"I have nothing but praise for the entire genus." (Mcllvaine.) 

 Eecently P. autumnalis has arisen to claim high rank as a toxic 

 fungus. 39 In 1911 a mother and two children ate heartily of it. 

 The children died. Severe poisoning of three individuals is also 

 reported from Minnesota. Animal tests by Ford and Sherrick 41 

 on the Minnesota lot were negative on guinea pigs, rabbits and 

 the frog heart, but a New York lot, although negative on blood 

 corpuscles, was acutely poisonous to guinea pigs and rabbits even 

 after heating. Atropin did not neutralize the dilating effect on 

 the heart. Postmortem appearances resembled those of A. phal- 

 loidcs and the extracts were quite as poisonous. It should be 

 grouped with the deadly poisonous Agarics, with the nature of the 

 poison unknown. 25 P. mutabilis is approved in Munich. 



THE GENUS INOCYBE 



Absolutely negligible and uninviting as food, this genus has like- 

 wise recently taken an important rank toxicologically from labora- 

 tory studies. The trouble began when Dr. Deming (once Vice- 

 President of the New York Mycological Club) knowingly gathered 

 Tnocylie infida and mixed it, for cooking, with Panaeohis papillion- 

 aceus which he knew to be non-poisonous. The chance taken 

 was one in a thousand— but he lost. (See 37, 47 and 48 in Bibli- 

 ography.) Five people were made ill. Symptoms, which came on 

 soon, were a sense of fullness in the head and a rapid pulse — as if 

 nitroglycerin had been taken. Sweating and warmth, no nausea 

 or prostration; slight confusion, pressure and pain in the lower 

 bowel. Some patients vomited, some had diarrhea. Recovery was 

 complete in a few hours under simple treatment. Conclusions 37 ' 48 

 are that I. infida contains a poison of the type of muscarin, acting 

 more particularly on the nervous system and similar to the nar- 



