Y4 ON THE MEDICINAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL 



the fingers down the throat. In a word, he succeeded in vomit- 

 ing up the morseL After swallowing some water he threw up 

 bilious matter, and subsequently experienced a trembling sensa- 

 tion in the lower extremities, which was owing to the efforts 

 made to vomit. Tliough he does not consider that he ran much 

 danger, yet he is now convinced that Paulet must have made his 

 experiments with plants with yellow gills, or that men possess a 

 sensibility differing from that of other animals. Tlie emetic 

 agaric with a red head, is the most poisonous. Tliree Italians, one 

 aged thirty-one, the other fourteen, and the third a little girl of eight, 

 having eaten, in Sept. 1826, of these mushrooms, called in their 

 country rossola, the signs of poisoning manifested themselves in 

 the two first in half an hour ; in the infant it was more slow, but 

 exhibited itself with more violence. The phenomena were char- 

 acterized by vertigo, constant nausea, vomiting of bilious matter, 

 with portions of the plant. Tliere was ardent thirst, cough, pain- 

 ful spasm in the epigastric region, weakness, constipation, a cold 

 feeling over the body, especially in the extremities, and lastly, 

 weakness and irregularity of pulse. Dr. Larber, who saw the 

 cases, administered an emetic in small, repeated doses, then pur- 

 gatives and small quantities of ammoniacal stimulants. This 

 was beneficial to the two first, but the child, in whom the bad 

 symptoms declared themselves twenty-four hours after eating the 

 mushroom, received no relief; it died the next day (Larber, Sui 

 Fungi Saggio Generale, tom. i. 89). In order to distinguish the 

 poisonous species from the good, we observe that in the latter 

 the gills are yellow and always equal ; in the bad they are white, 

 ,and unequal in length. The emetic agaric have also an acrid, 

 burning taste, while that of the eatable species is pleasant. 

 Eoques, Hist, des Champs. Ven. et Comest, 179. 



Agaricus s(Miguineus,'R\\\\.,A^\Ho(\ViQQ. \ ^ v '^ 



" ruler, V>.Q.Y\.Yy. \. -Ltg^'ows solitarily 



,, . . T- c i^iA 1^ the woods. 



'' integer, Linn., Spec. 1640. j 



This agaric is even more poisonous than the A. emeticus, to 

 which it bears some resemblance, — hence requires attention, so as 

 not to confound it with tlie eatable russules. On the 2d of 

 November, ten individuals, in a forest near Strasbourg, eat 

 freely of the AgaHcus integer venenatus. M. Claude, a physi- 

 cian, saw these persons about three hours after midday. Four of 

 them, who had eaten less, and had provoked vomiting by irritat- 



