of the poison administered to Claudius corresponds to the 
pattern of 4. phalloides poisoning, paying special atten- 
tion to symptoms and temporal sequence. In his article 
Wasson gives a short sketch of 4. phalloides poisoning: 
ee 
. its véritable signature . . . is the period of absolute quiescence 
that follows the ingestion of the mushrooms, a period that never lasts 
less than six hours, and usually ten or twelve, sometimes twenty or 
even forty or more. The victim goes about his affairs blissfully unaware 
that the fingers of death are entwining him. ... Of a sudden the 
victim is gripped by appalling abdominal] distress, followed by vomiting 
and diarrhoea foetida.’’ (Wasson, p. 102) 
The critical point is missing: there is no mention of 
mental derangement as the initial phase. On the con- 
trary: the poisoned person feels quite normal; he is in 
full possession of his physical and mental capacities. 
When the first symptom occurs, it is not mental de- 
rangement but ‘‘abdominal distress, followed by vomit- 
ing and diarrhoea foetida’’. 
The most exact and detailed description of 4. phal- 
loides poisoning is found in L. Lewin’s book on poisons. 
He differentiates between two variants: one gastric, the 
other cerebral. The former begins with diarrhoea, vomit- 
ing, colic, thirst, and in most cases ends in convalescence. 
The latter shows the following symptoms: headache, 
somnolence, pain in the calves, trismus, opistothonus, 
contractions in the arms, spastic twisting movements of 
the body, tossing of the head from right to left, muscu- 
lar jerking of the upper and lower left extremities, dizzi- 
ness, groaning, moaning, hydrocephalic yelling, mydria- 
sis, and amaurosis (cf. Lewin, 1929, p. 915 f.). This vari- 
ant usually leads to death. Wasson’s description appears 
to correspond to [ewin’s less dangerous variant. Yet, 
even Lewin’s cerebral variant definitely lacks the critical 
symptom of mental derangement as an initial phase. 
Moreover, it seems to be impossible to predict which 
type of poisoning will occur in a person. Lewin relates 
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