152 ON THE CHEMISTRY AND TOXICOLOGY OF FUNGI. 



of tlie harvest and consequent famine. But the same unusual 

 moisture which accelei*ated the potato-disease, also favoured the 

 growth of Fungi. People starved — even to death — ignoi'ant that 

 all around, in every wood, field, pasture, waste, and even bog, the 

 earth was offering a store of food, nutriment of a far richer sort 

 than the potato. One autumn the author saw, in Yorkshire, im- 

 mense quantities of certain Fungi, which are best adapted for drying, 

 salting down, and otherwise being stored up, neglected as usual, 

 a:id rotting where they grew. In the same neighbourhood there 

 was great distress in the ensuing winter. Had those crops of 

 Fungi been utilized, surely they would have been of some avail, 

 even if not of much ! These are high grounds, but they are true 

 grounds, on which to base advocacy of fungus-eating, a subject 

 which English people are prone to consider a ridiculous one ! 



Those Fungi which contain poisonous elements are in other 

 respects similarly constituted to their innocuous congeners. Hence 

 they are equally nourishing food, if they could be deprived of their 

 veuom. In some cases this can be done. Some pi'ocess of washing 

 or maceration removes or neutralizes the poisonous principle, and 

 the fungus becomes fit for food. In this way some species which 

 are undoubtedly poisonous are actually treated and eaten by the 

 peasantry of ilussia, France, and elsewhere. But it is advisable 

 to remember that a method sufficient in the case of one species or 

 a series of species may be quite ineffective in the case of other 

 species. Yet it is quite possible that a process might be found 

 that would eliminate the poison of any species, and render the 

 mushroom harmless and esculent. Let not the reader be surprised 

 at this. There is analogy in the case of the common article of 

 food known as tapioca. That substance is prepared from a root 

 whose juices are poisonous in a high degree ; jet no one hesitates 

 to eat it, therefore. Why may not th.e richer material of Fungi be 

 freed from deleterious essences likewise ? Nor has the fact that 

 poisonous species of Fungi may be rendered harmless and edible, 

 been gathered solely from rural traditions and usages. It has 

 been tested and expei'imented on by many men of science, and 

 various noted names ^ can be cited in support of it, to a greater or 

 less extent. 



Such English authors of medical and scientific works as make 

 any allusion to the poison of Fungi, or to its effects, appear to 



• Boudicr, Bulliard, Chansarel, Cordier, Gerard, Germnnn, Gobley, Krapf, 

 Leu/., Letellier, I'aukt, Poutick, I'ouchet, Scbradcr, etc., etc. 



