398 The Book of Woodcraft 



yellow, though the spores are white; stem yellow; the cap is 

 very flat when fully expanded and always is finely grooved 

 or fluted on the upper edge. This is not only eatable but 

 famous, yet it is so much like certain poisonous forms that 

 it is better let alone. Indeed it is best for the beginner to 

 accept the emphatic warning given by Mcllvaine and 

 Macadam, in their standard work " looo American Fungi" 

 (p. XVII): 



"Any toadstool with white or lemon-yellow gills, casting 

 white spores when laid — gills downward — upon a sheet 

 of paper, having remnants of a fugitive skin in the shape 

 of scabs or warts upon the upper surface of its cap, with a 

 veil or ring, or remnants or stains of one, having at the base 

 of its stem — in the ground — a loose, skinlike sheath sur- 

 rounding it, or remnants of one," should be considered 

 deadly poison till the contrary is proved by good authority. 

 This may make you reject some wholesome kinds, but 

 will surely keep you from danger. 



If by ill chance any one has eaten a poisonous Amanita, 

 the effects do not begin to show till sixteen or eighteen 

 hours afterward — that is, long after the poison has passed 

 through the stomach and begun its deadly work on the 

 nerve centres. 



Symptoms. Vomiting and purging, ''the discharge from 

 the bowels being watery with small flakes suspended, and 

 sometimes containing blood," cramps in the extremities. 

 The pulse is very slow and strong at first, but later weak 

 and rapid, sometimes sweat and saliva pour out. Dizziness, 

 faintness, and blindness, the skin clammy, cold and bluish 

 or Hvid; temperature low with dreadful tetanic convul- 

 sions, and finally stupor. (Mcllvaine and Macadam 

 p. 627.) 



Remedy: ''Take an emetic at once, and send for a phy- 

 sician with instructions to bring hypodermic syringe and 



