PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



LIBRA! 



NEW V«j 



BOTaNJv 



OARUii 



Vol. III. 



New York, February, 1896. 



No. 2. 



OUR CO/VIMON EDIBLE AND POISONOUS HUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS. 



BY SMITH KLY JEr-LIFFE, M. D., 

 Professor of Pharmacognosy at the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York. 



It may be a one-sided view of the uni- 

 verse, but we of the human race are 

 rather apt to think that the heavens and 

 the earth and all that in them is, were 

 created for the sole and special purpose of 

 adding to our comfort or pleasure. And 

 when we are brought into sudden and 

 painful contact with the business end of 

 a mosquito or wasp, or find that the edi- 

 ble looking mushroom turns out to be 

 deadly, we wonder in an injured way 

 why such things were made, and imply 

 that it was an oversight on the Creator's 

 part that our convenience was not con- 

 sulted. 



Now, if we could regard mankind as 

 merely an incidental element in the world, 

 and look at life from the standpoint of 

 the several hundred thousand species of 

 fungi that exist, we should be persuaded 

 that all the other plants in the world as 

 well as all the animals, including man 

 himself, were created for the express pur- 

 pose of prolonging their existence. 



O-stensibly our evening is to be spent 



in finding out what fungi are good for us 

 to eat; but we must admit that we are 

 rather late in our inquiries, for during 

 the last few million years the fungi have 

 been di.'-covering that every created thing 

 was good for some one of them to eat, and 

 since man came upon the scene, they have 

 been finding one way after another to prey 

 upon him. It is therefore only fair that 

 we should devote our attention to turning 

 the tables upon our parasitic friends, and 

 try to discover how best we may prey 

 upon them, without endangering either 

 our digestions or our lives. 



Of course, no one will misunderstand me 

 and imagine that the class of fungi called 

 mushrooms, that grow in the fields and 

 woods ever injure man unless he of his 

 own freewill has eaten them first. The 

 great foes to life are among the very low 

 but very powerful fungi, the bacteria. 



The bacteria which number their vic' 

 tims by the thousands, kill more human 

 beings in a day, than are poisoned by 

 mushrooms in a year. 



