LES CHAMPIGNONS. 286 



Les Champignons consideres dans leurs rapports avec la MSdicine, dc. 

 Par le Dr. Lucien-Marie Gautier. 8vo, 508 pp., 16 coloured 

 plates, 195 figures. Price 18 fr. Paris: J. B. liailliere et fils. 



This volume is a reissue of a similar edition published in 1883. 

 It is scarcely intended for students, but has for aim to help non- 

 scientific people to recognize easily those species of fungi that are 

 edible, as well as those that are distinctly poisonous, enabling them 

 thus to avail themselves of an abundant though little-appreciated 

 food-supply, and to avoid the dangers accruing from the eating of 

 poisonous forms. The author, a country physician, recounts how 

 one day a peasant asked him if certain mushrooms he had been 

 collecting were edible ; he confidently answered that all fungi were 

 poisonous, whereupon his interrogator informed him that he had 

 eaten just such mushrooms for twenty years, and would still con- 

 tinue to do so. Dr. Gautier was induced by this incident to take 

 up the study of this branch of Botany, and became in time an 

 entlnisiastic mycologist. If we consider the man who makes two 

 blades of grass grow where only one grew before to be a great 

 benefactor of the human race, we must also assign a high place to 

 those who seek to teuch us how to use the already existing products 

 of the earth. Dr. Gautier's descriptions of each plant are full and 

 clear ; he tells us both how and where they grow, and when they 

 are to be foiind at their best ; the coloured plates, though somewhat 

 crude and indefinite, are of help, too, in the identification, and with 

 such a book in his hand the mushroom -lover may gather and eat 

 with great confidence. The edible species recorded here are largely 

 to be found in our country as well as on the Continent, so that 

 although written for French people, the volume will serve as a 

 guide to our own fungi. Culinary details are not lacking, and arc 

 indeed very necessary, as the manner of cooking is of great 

 importance in dealing with mushrooms. 



Dr. Gautier gives a very interesting account of the use of fungi 

 in the arts, some being employed for dyeing, others as fermentative 

 agents. He also discusses at some length the diseases of plants 

 caused by fungi, although he omits to tell us how to combat such 

 diseases. There is a full account of useful remedies to be used in 

 cases of poisoning, and a chapter is devoted to medical jurisprudence 

 in connection with such an event. Common sense might warn 

 people against eating the more poisonous varieties ; those, for 

 example, that grow in unhealthy localities, or have an unwholesome 

 odour, are certain to be noxious ; but such rules are not infallible, 

 and people are foolhardy and careless, whence the need of books 

 like this one. 



The author adds a historical sketch of those botanists who have 

 specially worked at fungi, and also furnishes an exhaustive biblio- 

 graphy of the subject for students who wish to learn more about 

 this most interesting branch of Natural History. 



A. L. S. 



