12 Mycologica! Bulletin Xo. 86 [\'ol. M 



It may be advisable in this connection to reproduce an 

 account of poisoning by eating Amanitas, which Air. O. E. Jen- 

 nings pubhshed in the September Xuml)er of the Journal of My- 

 cology. It is as follows : 



"A Case of Poisoning by Amanita Phalloidi-:s. — 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 A'alley. in the extreme 

 southwestern point of Pennsylvania, and. acting upon Judge 

 Shafer's urgent suggestion, the case was immediately inves- 

 tigated. 



"It was found that the village physician. Dr. Philip Dins- 

 more, 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 Air. Roberts. There 

 had been about a cjuart of the mushrooms and they had been 

 prepared by frying in flour and butter. All ate of the nnishrooms 

 excepting one little girl. 



"Between one and tw^o 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 sub-normal temperature, more or less de- 

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

 of the limlis 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), 

 Air. 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 distention of the gall-bladder and tlic patients 

 were becoming jaundiced. 



"Saturday morning AJr. Roberts escorted the writer to a lit- 

 tle patch of al)out two acres of woods, lying at the base of the 

 hillside along the creek, where the mushroouis had been gathered 

 for the fatal meal. Two species w'ere abundant. Caiiiharelliis 

 and the white form of Amanita phalloidcs 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 

 selected were Amanitopsis vagiiiafa (Bull.) Roz., and Riissiila 

 cmctica Fr. — a very few. The only test.api^Hcd in selecting the 

 fungi had ap]iarcnll\- Ix'cn llic ])lcasing ai)i)ear;iiu-e and tlic ten- 



