50 ox THE MEDICINAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL 



insoluble in water, ulcohol, ether, weak sulplinric acid, and weak 

 solutions of potassa and soda; solulde in lieated muriatic acid; 

 decomposed by iiitric acid, and by concentrated alkaline solu- 

 tions; and converted, by destructive distillation, into substances 

 resembling those which result from tlie distillation of animal mat- 

 ters. This subject was afterwards resumed by Letellier, who says 

 he found in some of them one, in others two poisonous princii)les. 

 One of these is an acrid matter, so fugacious that it disappears 

 when the plant is either dried or boiled, or macerated in weak 

 acids, alkalies, or alcohol. To this princij^le, lie says, is owing the 

 irritant properties of some fungi. The other principle is more 

 fixed, as it resists drying, boiling, and the action of weak alka- 

 lies and acids. It is soluble in Avater, has neither smell nor taste, 

 and forms crystallizable salts with acids ; but he did not succeed 

 in separating it in a state of purity. To this principle lie attri- 

 butes the narcotic properties of the fungi. He found it in Am. 

 oniiscaria, bullosa, and verna^' and he therefore proposed to call it 

 amanatine. Its effects on animals appear to resemble, considera- 

 bly those of opium. Arcliiv. Gen. de Med. xi. 94. Chausarel 

 foimd that the poisonous principle resides in the juice, and not in 

 the fleshy part, after it is well washed. Eepert. fiir die Phar- 

 macie, Ixvi. 117 ; Christison on Poisons, p. TO-1, 



The mode of action of the poisonous fungi has not been par- 

 ticularly examined ; but the experiments of Paulet long ago estab- 

 lished that they are j^oisonous to animals as well as to man. 

 Traite des Champig. Coeffes. Mem. de la Soc. de Roy. de Med. i. 

 431. Tlie toxic or active principle, according to Miallie, depends 

 upon their power to coagulate the albumen of the blood, and lience 

 to arrest the circulation. Mialhe, Essai sur TArt de Formuler, 

 ccxcix. ; Supplem. 1840, to Diet, de M. Med. 101. The symp- 

 toms produced by them in man are endless in variety, and fully 

 substantiate the propriety of arranging them in the class of nar- 

 cotico-acrid poisons. Sometimes they produce narcotic sjnnptoms 

 alone, sometimes only symptoms of irritation, but much more com- 

 monly both together. See Agaricus camjyamdatus, A. 2>rocerus, 

 and A. ])antlierinus / also, Jli/pophi/llum sangidneum. It is like- 

 wise not improbable that fungi, even those not belonging to the 

 varieties commonl}'- acknowledged as poisons, induce, wlien taken 

 for a considerable length of time, a peculiar depraved state of the 

 constitution, leading to external sujtpuration and gangrene. 

 Christison on Poison?, p. 7'i4. 



