38 Rev. W. Houghton's Notices of Fungi 



Galen, the celebrated physician of Pergamus (born A.D. 

 130), seems to have regarded fungi generally as unwholesome 

 diet, but the boletus as tolerably good and to be trusted, though 

 even to the boletus ((Ba)\iT7]<;) he dues not ascribe very tasty 

 qualities. " Of fungi (fivicqs;) the /3<oAiT?7?, when well boiled, 

 must be counted among insipid things; it is generally eaten 

 with various kinds of spices, as is done with other insipid 

 food. These fungi, after being eaten in large quantities, 

 yield cold, clammy, noxious juices as their nourishing quanti- 

 ties ((^Xe7 ( uaTf£)'6?79 8' early rj i% avroov rpo(f>r], real ftr/Xov ore 

 teal yjrv^pd, kciv vrkeovdfy ti? ev avToU /ca/co'^i'/xo?) ; the boleti 

 are the most harmless and after them the amanitse (dfiavlTcu) ; 

 as for the rest, it is far safer to have nothing whatever to do 

 with them {fJ-rjB' o\&>9 aTrreodcu), because many persons have 

 been poisoned by them. ... I myself know the case of a man 

 who ate a quantity of these badly cooked boleti, supposed to 

 be wholesome, and was afterwards troubled with severe 

 pains in the stomach, with difficulty of breathing, faintness 

 (Xei7ro-v|ru^>;cravTa) , and cold sweats, and who was with 

 difficulty saved by taking such remedies as are able to dissi- 

 pate inspissated juices, such as vinegar and honey, either 

 alone or with hyssop and origanum sufficiently boiled ; the 

 man partook of this remedy sprinkled with soda, and 

 vomited up the fungi which he had eaten " (De aliment, 

 facult. lib. ii. cap. 69). 



Again, Galen remarks in his treatise ' Deprobis pravisque 

 alimentorum succis ': — " Of all such kinds of food fungi have 

 the coldest, most viscid, and thickest juice ; however, among 

 them the boleti alone have never been known to cause 

 any one's death ; still, to some persons, even they cause 



cholera and indigestion The best proof of the un- 



wholesomeness of a fungus is the impossibility of drying and 

 preserving it " (caps, iv., v., vol. vi. pp. 770, 785, ed. 

 Kiihn). 



Epileptic patients must abstain from all bad food, such as 

 fungi (fjLVKT)*;), turnips, and other roots (Pro puero epilept. 

 consilium, p. 368, ed. Kiihn). The curious emetic which 

 first appears in Nicander was employed sometimes by Galen. 

 " I have heard of a physician in Mysia who administered 

 fowl's dung to persons suffering from fungus-poisoning, and 

 I have often myself experimented with this remedy. I have 

 used finely powdered dung mixed with water or with honey 

 and vinegar. The patients immediately on drinking this 

 mixture vomited and recovered. One must observe that the 

 dung of a fowl at liberty is more efficacious than that of one 

 in confinement " ^Simpl. Med. p. 303, ed. Kiihn). 



