48 ON THE MEDICINAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL 



vation, tliat in some town of Poland, where lie was detained as a 

 prisoner, he amused himself with collecting and drying the vari- 

 ous fungi which grew within its walls, amongst which were many 

 commonly reputed dangerous ; and that, to his great sui-prise, his 

 whole collection was devoured by the soldiers. Indeed, two poi- 

 sonous principles have been discovered in fungi, one of which is 

 so fugacious that it is dispelled by heat, or the act of drying, or 

 by immersion in acids, alkalies, or alchohol ; the other is more 

 fixed, and resists such processes. It is, however, the practice in 

 some districts, to use fungi without any preparation whatever, as 

 in their simple state they are considered more wholesome and 

 nutritious. Tliis practice is probably confined to kinds allied in 

 their qualities to Agaricus cainpestris, and Schwaegrichen assures 

 us, in a letter quoted by Person, that in consequence of seeing the 

 peasants about Nuremberg eating raw Qimshrooms^ seasoned with 

 anise and carraway-seed, along with their black bread, he resolved 

 to try their eftect himself; and that during several weeks he ate 

 nothing but bread and raw fungi, as Boletus eduUs, Agaricus 

 campestris, Agaricus jprocerus, &c., and drank nothing but water, 

 when instead of finding his health aftected, he rather experienced 

 an increase of strength. A few species are recorded as used in 

 the Southern hemisphere, and a kind of Pachyma is known in 

 Yan Diemen's Land by the name of '■'■ native hreacV 



Tlie medical uses of fungi^ are probably of far greater 

 importance than their present very limited application might 

 lead us to suppose. Several which were formerly in high reputa- 

 tion for their active properties, are now altogether neglected or 

 forgotten. 



In the economy of the world. Fungi perform a most import- 

 ant office, in hastening the decomposition of dead organized mat- 

 ter. It is this property which renders one o»two species, known 

 under the common name of dr]j rot^ such a dreadful plague in 

 ships and buildings. Tlie disease doubtless originates on some 

 unsound portion of the wood, but, once established, it spreads 

 with wonderful i-apidity and decomposes the sound wood beneath 

 it bv absorbino; its nutritive matter. 



AVhite of Q^g might probal)ly be used to advantage, on a small 

 scale as it seems, equally with corrosive sublimate, to prevent the 

 growth oi fungi ; indeed, it is sometimes employed by house- 

 keepers for the prevention of mold, b}^ simply covering the arti- 

 cles to be preserved with paper steeped in it. In herbaria and 



