PROPERTIES OF CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS. 89 



The A. ccesaria is considered eatable. Amanita citrma, 

 stewed with carp and eaten, induced vomiting, followed by deep 

 sopor, in three persons who recovered ; another had true and vio- 

 lent cholera bnt also recovered ; two who had partaken of the 

 same meal, who were children, became profoundly lethargic and 

 comatose ; emetics had no eflPect, and death soon ensued without 

 any other remarkable symptom. The individuals who recovered 

 were not completely well till three weeks after the fatal repast. 

 Orfila, Toxicol. Gen. ii. 433. This set of cases, remarks Christi- 

 son, shows the tendency of the poisonous fungi to cause in one set 

 of persons pure irritation, and in another pure narcotism. " On 

 Poisons," p. 107 ; Orfila, Traite des Poisons, iv. 420. 



HypojpTiyUuifrh sanguineum. Puddock-stool. 



We cannot ascertain the position of this genus, though they 

 should perhaps be placed near Ama7iifa. 



Christison describes a case of poisoning from a plant to which 

 he alludes under the name. He says that it is a small, conical 

 fungus, well known to children in Scotland as the puddock-stool. 

 This species seem to cause convulsions as well as soj^or. A fam- 

 ily of six persons, four of whom were children, ate about two 

 pounds of it dressed with butter. The incipient symi3toms were 

 pain in the pit of the stomach, a sense of imj^ending suffocation, 

 and violent efforts to vomit, which symptoms did not commence 

 in any of them till about twelve hours after the poisonous meal, 

 in one not till twenty hours, and in another not till nearly thirty 

 hours. One of the children, seven years of age, had acute pain 

 of the belly, which soon swelled enormously ; afterwards he fell 

 into a state of lethargic sleep, but continued to cry ; about twenty- 

 four hours after eating the fungi the limbs became affected with 

 permanent spasms and convulsive fits ; and in no long time he 

 expired in a tetanic paroxysm. Another of the children, ten years 

 old, perished nearly in the same manner, but with convulsions of 

 greater violence. The mother had frequent bloody stools and 

 vomiting ; the skin became yellow ; the muscles of the abdomen 

 were contracted spasmodically, so that the navel was drawn to- 

 wards the spine ; profound lethargy and general coldness super- 

 vened ; and she, too, died about thu'ty-six hours after eating the 

 fungus. A third child, after slight symptoms of amendment had 

 shown themselves, became worse again, and died on the third 

 day, with trembling, delirium, and convulsions. This patient, who 



