30 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



generally be obtained in the same way as 

 in illness caused by fruit poisoning, viz. , 

 by emetics and purgatives. 



As long ago as in the second century, 

 Dioscorided made the observation that 

 some cases of fungi poisoning were due 

 to indigestion from eating decaying speci- 

 mens or leathery kinds, and not to a true 

 poison. 



If a physician does not know anything 

 about the different species of fungi, or if 

 he does know them, but has no samples 

 to examine, and is obliged to depend on 

 the time test, he has to remember that if 

 his patient has made a very promiscuous 

 meal of mushrooms, he may have eaten 

 the less dangerous which produce sick- 

 ness within a few hours, and also some of 

 the Amaiiitas that will not produce symp. 

 toms until the next day, therefore he may 

 have to resort to two entirely different 

 methods of treatment, and though relief 

 may be given after treatment for a minor 

 poison, he must watch for symptoms of a 

 more dangerous character. 



"When muscarine begins to work, the 

 victim is generally very nauseated and 

 faint, and suffers paroxysms ot great 

 agony. The effect of the poison is to 

 depress the heart action, and to paralyze 

 the centers of respiration. 



This fact was discovered in this coun- 

 try by a Dr. Shadle, when he was call- 

 ed to attend a family of five persons who 

 were all suffering from the same distress- 

 ing symptoms. The day before they had 

 all eaten heartily of field mushrooms, 

 which, they had gathered in the woods. 

 Probably their repast consisted of the 

 Spring mushroom, the one that so much 

 resembles the field mushroom save for its 

 pure white gills. 



Two of them had tried to see which 

 could eat the most. All began to suffer 

 violently at daybreak the next day. A 

 neighbor to whom they had extended the 

 courtesy of their delicacy was also taken 



ill, and even the cat who had the scrap- 

 ings of the dish was sick. 



Dr. Shadle applied heated bricks 

 to the ice - cold extremities of his 

 patients to restore circulation, and tried 

 to rally the falling heart action by stimu- 

 lants. Finally he concluded that the 

 poison, whatever it was, was narcotic in 

 its nature and acted on the nerve centers, 

 especially those governing the function of 

 respiration and in the action of the heart. 

 Accordingly he began to administer 

 atropine in larger and larger quantities, 

 and found that a perceptible improvement 

 in the heart action followed each dose. 

 Three of the patients lives were saved, 

 but the two that had eaten the largest 

 quantities died. Since then Atropine 

 has been tested and found to be a perfect 

 antidote for the poisonous alkaloid of the 

 Amanitas. 



It is late in the year to try to get up 

 an enthusiasm for something that is past 

 for the season. The woods are barren 

 of edible fungi, and whosoever longs for 

 a dish of some of the common kinds that 

 the connoisseur pronounces so delicious 

 must content himself with pictures of 

 them for the winter, unless he would 

 like to try the experiment of cultivating 

 them. It in not an unusual thing in 

 Europe for the wealthy as well as the 

 poor to have their own mushroom beds, 

 and cultivate in the house or yard 

 enough mushrooms for their own use. 

 In fact, enthusiastic writers on the sub- 

 ject of mushroom culture express them- 

 selves as lost in amazement that more 

 enterprizing Americans do not have pri- 

 vate mushroom beds. 



In this age, when women have turned 

 to account every faculty for developing 

 industries and making money, it is quite 

 possible that they could go into the un- 

 dertaking with great success, either to 

 provide themselves or their friends with 

 an expensive luxury or to turn pennies 



