FUNGI AND MODERN AFFAIRS — RAMSBOTTOM 315 



owing to finding enormous quantities of edible fungi which were to 

 them as manna was to the children of Israel. 



There are a number of species which have always had a good repu- 

 tation as edible, which moreover are easy to identify and which cannot 

 readily be confused with any poisonous forms. For those not making 

 a special study of the subject, it is advisable to learn to recognize some 

 of these, rather than to experiment with others about which all that is 

 known is that they are not among those regarded as poisonous. 



The most deadly poisonous species is Amanita p7iaIloides (including 

 the two white varieties or closely allied species A. verna and A. virosa) . 

 It is responsible for practically all the recorded deaths from fungus 

 poisoning and the death rate is more than 50 percent — indeed, it has 

 been put as high as 90 percent. There is a characteristic period of 

 quiescence after the fungus is eaten, on an average 12 hours, though 

 it may be as long as 40. Death may occur on the first day, but is usually 

 on the third or fourth day. There are apparently four poisons con- 

 tained in this species: Amanita haemolysin (phallin), a glucoside 

 readily destroyed by heat and digestive juices ; Amanita toxin with a 

 complicated and indefinite chemical structure; and, according to the 

 work of F. Lynen and U. Wieland (1937) , phalloidin, which is quickly 

 acting though destroyed by heat, and an additional slower-acting 

 toxin. Death through eating the cooked fungus is apparently due to 

 the heat-resistant Amanita toxin. [H. Wieland and B. Witkop in 1940 

 showed that phalloidin is a hexapeptide with the probable formula 



C 3 oH 3 90 9 N 7 S 



and in 1941 Wieland and K. Hallermayer stated that Amanita toxin 

 which they called Amanitin has the character of a weak acid and con- 

 tains peptide-like groupings; the formula is 



O33.H.45 (or 47)^12-^ 7^« 



There are only three poisons present, the report of a fourth being due 

 to impure preparation confusing the findings.] Cures have been re- 

 ported by the use of a "serum antiphalloidien" prepared at the Pasteur 

 Institute ; by intravenous injection with 20 percent glucose solution ; 

 by intravenous injection with 10 percent sodium chloride solution ; by 

 administering the finely chopped-up stomachs of three rabbits and the 

 brains of seven. 



Amanita mappa, formerly considered as very poisonous, is edible 

 but not worth eating. Amanita muscaria, which contains muscarine, 

 mycetoatropine, and choline, does not cause death in healthy people. 

 The symptoms of poisoning usually simulate alcoholic intoxication, 

 though there are occasionally gastro-intestinal disturbances. Amanita 

 pantherina produces similar sympoms. 



