ON THE ECONOMIC USE OF FUNGI. 17 



provide itself with a noxious principle; consequently that we 

 cannot depend npon the qualities of an English mushroom, 

 although the identical species may be invariahly wholesome and 

 good in France. No proof that this is so has ever been produ- 

 cible. There is only vague and erroneous assertion to back it. 

 And if it were to be indisputably demonstrated that such change 

 of character was really true, it could only be set down as a pecu- 

 liarity of the one species in which it had been observed, and could 

 not be applied to all kinds indiscriminately. The idea arises from 

 the lack of discrimination. When Fungi are regarded properly, 

 each species as a thing by itself, as we should regard an oak, an 

 apple-tree, and a gooseberry-bush, then such a notion is seen to 

 be not only without analogy in the Vegetable Kingdom, but also 

 incompatible with common sense. 



Little as English people know about esculent Fungi, that 

 little is illumination compared with all they know on the subject 

 of fungus poisons. In that field there is almost total darkness. 

 But the subject will be treated of in a separate chapter on the 

 chemistry and toxicology of Fungi, which the author particularly 

 recommends to the notice of the medical profession. 



