in Greek and Latin Authors. 39 



" Physicians (^Esclapiadse) recommend the following reme- 

 dies for fungus-poisoning : raw radishes in quantities, un- 

 mixed wine, lye-ashes of the vine, a mixture of soda and 

 vinegar, ashes of burnt lees of wine mixed with water, 

 wormwood and vinegar, rue either with vinegar or alone" 

 (De antid. 2. 7, p. 140, ed. Kiihn). Athengeus (a.D. 230), of 

 course, has some chatty conversation about fungi, and gives 

 quotations from authors whose works are not extant now. 

 Most fungi require moist ground, and so Aristias says, " The 

 stony plain stretches itself out (in vain) for fungi." Poliochus 

 mentions, among other food, roasted fungi — xal fu,v/a]<; rt? 

 iviOT wTTTaro, " and sometimes some fungus would be 

 roasted." 



Antiphanes seems to have considered fungi hazardous food. 

 " Who of us knows the future, what is fated for each of our 

 friends to suffer, but quickly take and roast these two fungi 

 gathered from the ilex." Cephisodorus quotes from the Pro- 

 verbs of Antiphanes : " For I, if I eat any of your dishes, think 

 that I am eating raw fungi or sour apples, or other choking 

 food " (et Tt Trviyei fipwfid ri). Athenseus continues, " Fungi 

 are earth-produced {yijyevels), and a few of them are good 

 to eat ; but most produce a choking sensation, hence Epi- 

 charmus joking says, ' You will be parched and choked as if 

 by fungi.' INicander mentions in his ' Georgics ' [a lost work] 

 some kinds that are deadly, and says that fearful calamities 

 arise from eating from the olive, the ilex, and the oak, clammy 

 choking lumps of fungi. He says moreover [in order to 

 produce fungi artificially], bury the stump of a fig-tree in the 

 ground with dung and moisten it with spring water ; at the 

 bottom harmless fungi will grow, of which you must not 

 cut off from the root anything that is of inferior quality. And 

 he says again, ' and then the fungi called amanitae you may 

 roast ;' and Ephippus says, ' that I may choke you as fungi 

 do.' " 



Accidental poisoning by fungi was probably more common 

 among the ancients than with us, who, as a rule, eat no single 

 species except the common mushroom. From what has been 

 said it is clear that the ancients ate various kinds, though 

 often with hesitation and caution • accidental poisoning pro- 

 bably occasionally occurred from gathering the wholesome 

 field -fungi in the dusk of the evening, as with us ; the A. 

 Si miglobatuSj known to be highly poisonous, grows frequently 

 in the fields in close proximity to A. campestris } and a few 

 of them carelessly mixed with the edible sorts would produce 

 dangerous effects ; or people may have been falsely allured 

 into security by the smell and appearance of some particular 



