THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



29 



lianging veil, its large symetrical orange 

 or clear yellow cap, and its pure white 

 gills. It is a much neater, cleaner fun- 

 gus than many of the edible kinds, per- 

 haps it is in that way that so many of 

 the Amanitas work destruction, because 

 they are so unsuspicious and attractive in 

 their appearance. 



The poison extracted from it is an al- 

 kaloid called muscarine, which is used 

 in the manufacture of fly poison. I was 

 interested last summer to find several 

 dead flies lying close to a yellow cap I 

 had cut off" and laid on paper over night 

 for the purpose of obtaining the spores. 

 On testing it I found that flies and small 

 insects succumbed after merely walking 

 over it. 



There are some curious stories told of 

 this particular mushroom. It s^eems that 

 the natives of Kamschatka, and certain 

 tribes in North Eastern Asia, have used 

 this fungus since time immemoriable as 

 an intoxicant, instead of wine or brandy 

 or opium. They collect in hot weather 

 and try it, or, if it dries on the ground so 

 much the better. Then when they have 

 a stock of it they hold an orgy. One or 

 two of the the tried specimens form a 

 dose, they swallow it without chewing 

 it, and in course of time become delight- 

 fully, happy and riotous. They jump 

 and dance and tell all they know, and 

 show signs of great intoxication. They 

 know just how much they dare take, for 

 a larger dose would prove fatal. 



The name muscarine is applied to the 

 poison of many of the Amanitas. It has 

 been found that the poison can be boiled 

 out, for a quart of water in which some 

 of these mushrooms had been boiled, 

 killed a dog in eight hours, when the 

 boiled mushrooms themselves were fed 

 to two other dogs without any bad ef- 

 fects. 



This explains the stories we hear of 

 the Russians eating our poisonous species 



as lood ; for many kinds can be eaten 

 when dried and pickled which would 

 otherwise be poisonous. The brine serves 

 to draw the poison out just as it does in 

 egg-plant, which if eaten without being 

 soaked in salt and water would have a 

 poisonous effect. 



As an illustration of the digestive 

 powers of some persons, it is told that a 

 gentleman who was detained as a prisoner 

 in a small town in Poland amused him- 

 self by making a collection of the fungi 

 of the neighborhood. He had all kinds 

 edible and poisonous, when suddenly his 

 collection disappeared. Investigation 

 showed that it had been stolen and eaten 

 by the soldiers who could not resist the 

 temptation to appropriate such a whole- 

 sale delicacy. 



Out of for v ^ ecies of Amanita only 

 eight are really poisonous, and possibly 

 they would be almost harmless if taken 

 in small quantities, or boiled or pickled. 

 The danger lies in all cases in eating them 

 in good faith as field mushrooms, for in 

 an average meal there is sufticient mus- 

 carine taken into the human system, to 

 act as a powerful poison. 



When a physician is called in to aid 

 a victim of mushroom poisoning his first 

 object is to learn how long after eating 

 the efiects were first felt. For the minor 

 poisons manifest themselves in four or 

 five hours, and the deadly poisons of the 

 Amanitas seldom take effect under eight 

 or twelve hours. 



It must be remembered that many of 

 the non-edible mushrooms do not endan- 

 ger life. They merely cause sickness due 

 to their acridity or to some peculi&r 

 property. Even the good field mush- 

 room has been known to produce illness, 

 but one also jnay read of cases on record 

 where unripe peaches and over-ripe water- 

 melon have had the same effect. Any 

 mushroom that is not perfectly fresh may 

 produce a minor poisoning, but relief can 



