in 



symptoms were nausea, vomitiug, jaundice, stoppage of the kidneys, and 

 litemagiobinuiia. The symptoms observed in man correspond to those 

 manifested by the lower animals. Dissection showed the dissolution of 

 innumerable blood corpuscles. 



Prof. Robert, commenting on the experiments made by Bostroem and 

 Ponlick, states that he himself had been furnished j^early with fresh 

 specimens of " H. escalenta^' (G. esculenta) specially gathered for him at 

 Dorpat, and after making various experiments with the freshly expressed 

 juice he became convinced that the poisonous princijDle greatly varies, 

 the juice sometimes operating as very poisonous, and sometimes as only 

 slightly so. He states also that the proportion of poison in the mush- 

 room varies with the weather, location, and age of the mushroom. The 

 inhabitants of Russia do not eat this mushroom, but in Germany it is 

 eaten dried or when perfectly fresh, after cooking, and after the first 

 water in which it is boiled is removed. 



Helvellic acid is not found in Morchella esculenta (the true Morel), nor 

 is it known to exist in any other species except G. esculenta. It has been 

 stated that there is no antidote for helvellic poisoning after the symp- 

 toms have appeared. 



A specimen of Gyromitra esculenta was forwarded to me from Port- 

 land, Maine, by a member of a mycological club of that city, who 

 stated that this mushroom was quite abundant in the early spring in the 

 woods near Portland and that the plants were eaten by the members of 

 the club, care being taken to use them only lohen perfectly fresh. Indi- 

 gestion and nausea followed the eating of old specimens, but the general 

 opinion was " favorable to the Gyromitra as an addition to the table.'' 

 (See page 6, part 2, of this series.) 



Prof. Chas. H. Peck, of Albany, while placing this mushroom in his 

 edible list as one which he had repeatedly tested, advises that it should be 

 eaten only when perfectly fresh, as nausea and sickness had been known 

 to result from the eating of specimens which had been kept twenty-four 

 hours before cooking. 



I forwarded a number of drawings of the American species of G. escu,- 

 lenta, together with a dried specimen of the same received from Maine, to 

 Prof. Kobert, who identified both drawings and specimen as the Gyromitra 

 esculenta of Fries, synonymous with the Ilelvella esculenta of Persoon. 

 Prof. Kobert also informs me that he finds the fresh G. esc?<^e«<a perf ectlj^ 

 harmless when freed of the water of the first boiling. He says : " My 

 wife and I eat it very often, when in fresh condition, and after the first 

 water in which it is boiled is poured off.'' The active poisonous principle 

 of this mushroom is the helvellic acid., which is soluble in hot water. 

 When the mushroom is gathered fresh and quickly dried it is then also 

 innoxious. In this respect it differs from the siDecies A. muscai'ia, in 

 which the poisonous alkaloid innscariji is not destroyed in the drying, but 

 remains unchanged for years in the dried mushroom. 



The fact that there have been seemingly well-authenticated cases of 



