PROPERTIES OF CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS. 51 



Even the esculent mnslirooms, if jDartiallj devoured and aban- 

 doned by insects, are avoided by some as having, in all probability, 

 acquired injurious qualities which they do not usually possess ; but 

 this test I have often disregarded, remarks Christison (" On Pois- 

 ons," p. T04:). Li cases of poisoning with the fungi, there is a great 

 diflference in the interval which elapses before the symptoms begin. 

 Sometimes they commence in a few minutes, sometimes an inter- 

 val of twelve hours has occurred. Gmelin has quoted a set of 

 cases, seventeen in number, in which it was said to have been a 

 day and a half Tlieir indigestibility, to which this has been attrib- 

 uted, is sometimes so great, that portions of them have been dis- 

 charged by vomiting so late as fifty-two hours after they were 

 swallowed. Aymen, in Hist, de la Soc. Roy. de Med. i. 844. 

 Another circumstance worthy of particular notice is the great 

 durability of the symptoms. Even the purely narcotic effects 

 have been known to last above two days ; the symptoms of irrita- 

 tion have continued, as in the instance quoted from Orfila, about 

 three weeks. Through idiosyncracy, some persons have been af- 

 fected by the small portion of mushroom juice wdiich is contained 

 in an ordinary catsup seasoning. Christison. 



In Kust's Journal, we have cases of persons having their sys- 

 tems depraved by living exclusively on mushrooms ; a botanist, 

 of Person's acquaintance, while studying the cryptogamous plants 

 in the vicinity of JN'uremberg, says he found that the peasants ate 

 them raw, in large quantity, as their daily food : in imitation of 

 their custom, he ate, for several weeks, nothing but bread and raw 

 mushrooms — enjoying all the wdiile perfect health. Person, 

 Traite sur les Champ, Comestibles, 157. 



The morbid appearances left in the bodies of persons poisoned 

 by the deleterious fungi, have been but imperfectly collected. 

 Christison details for us a few of tliese : Tlie body is in general 

 very livid, and the blood fluid ; so much so, sometimes, that it 

 flows from the natural openings in the dead body. Picco, Hist, 

 de la Soc. p. 357. In general, the abdomen is distended with 

 fetid air, which, indeed, is usually present during life. Tlie stom- 

 ach and intestines of some Prench soldiers Avho died of it (see Ag. 

 onuscaHus) presented the appearance of inflammatio]i, passing in 

 some places to gangrene. In two of them the stomacli was gan- 

 grenous in many places, and far advanced in putrefaction. The 

 same appearances were found in the cases mentioned by Picco : 

 in these there was also an excessive enhirgement of the liver. Tlie 



