Sept. 1907] Poisoning by Amanita Phalloides 187 



A CASE OF POISONING BY AMANITA PHALLOIDES. 



OTTO E. JENNINGS. 



The writer's attention was recently called by Judge J. D. 

 Shafer, of Pittsburg-, to a newspaper account of a fatal case of 

 mushroom poisoning at the little village of Deep Valley in the 

 extreme southwestern point of Pennsylvania, and, acting upon 

 Judge Shafer's urgent suggestion, the case was immediately 

 investigated. 



It was found that the village physician. Dr. Philip Dinsmore, 

 together with three other members of the family and Mr. Frank 

 Roberts, the man-of-all-work, had eaten with the evening meal, 

 between six and seven o'clock, Sunday, August 4, a mess of 

 mushrooms gathered that afternoon by Mr. Roberts. There had 

 been about a quart of the mushrooms and they had been pre- 

 pared by frying in flour and butter. All ate of the mushrooms 

 excepting one little girl. 



Between one and two o'clock the next morning all who had 

 eaten of the mushrooms were taken violently sick, vomiting ex- 

 cessively and having an extreme diarrhoea. These symptoms 

 continuing during Monday, Dr. H. C. Rice, of Freeport, Pa., was 

 summoned and a treatment begun consisting of the sub-cutaneous 

 injection of atropine and as far as possible the administration of 

 narcotics and oleaginous purgatives. 



The vomiting and diarrhoea continued for about three days, 

 other symptoms being subnormal temperature, more or less de- 

 lirium, and in the case of Dr. Dinsmore, severe muscular cramps 

 of the limbs and extremities, and, evidently, of the muscular walls 

 of the abdomen also, the patient dying early Thursday morning. 



At the time of the writer's visit (Saturday, August 10) 

 Mr. Roberts had so far recovered as to be about, but the other 

 three patients were still confined to their beds. The vomiting 

 and diarrhoea had ceased, but there was considerable enlargement 

 of the liver with distension of the gall-bladder and the patients 

 were becoming jaundiced. 



Saturday morning Mr. Roberts escorted the writer to a lit- 

 tle patch of about two acres of woods, lying at the base of the 

 hillside along the creek, where the mushrooms had been gathered 

 for the fatal meal. Two species were abundant, Cantharellus* 

 and the white form of Amanita phalloides Fr., and the latter 

 species was indicated as the one composing the greater part of 

 the mess taken. Other species indicated as having been also 



Published by permission of Dr. W. J. Holland, Director of the 

 Carnegie Museum. 



* The writer is indebted to Prof. D. R. Sumstine for verification of 

 the identications. 



