196 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[October, 



the plant in the first instance my lips 

 and nose plainly enough showed the 

 consequences, probably from a trans- 

 fer by means of my handkerchief. 

 In the second case, no results have 

 "been noticed. 



I turn now to another class of 

 poisonous plants, to be more briefly 

 treated because the facts are not so 

 well worked up. I mean the poison- 

 ous fungi, known as mushrooms and 

 toadstools. 



It certainly is not hard to find un- 

 doubted bacteria in many of these 

 as well as other fungi. In crushing 

 the fruit-balls (conceptacles) of the 

 leaf-moulds (Erysiphce) under a 

 cover-glass, I have frequently seen 

 issuing from the ruptured balls pecu- 

 liar bacteria which darted hither and 

 yon in the water in which they were 

 immersed. From this statement, my 

 botanical friends may think I have 

 mistaken the minute spores some- 

 times found in these conceptacles for 

 bacteria, but such is not the case. I 

 have already cited an instance of 

 finding a swarm of micrococci in a 

 filament of a common mould, and it 

 may now be added that they have 

 several times been seen in great num- 

 bers in the tissues of the fleshy fungi, 

 while the latter were still young and 

 fresh. 



When these poisonous plants are 

 used as food there seems to be two 

 pretty well marked modes of mis- 

 chievous action, working either 

 singly or combined. In one case 

 the bad results are soon made known 

 by pain and vomitting ; in the other 

 case the unfortunate individual per- 

 ceives nothing wrong for from six to 

 ten or more hours after eating. The 

 first has been ascribed to a peculiar 

 acrid, the second to a narcotic prin- 

 ciple, in the mushrooms. The former, 

 though violent, is not nearly so dan- 

 gerous to life as the slower action of 

 the second. When both act together, 

 or rather one after the other, peril is 

 imminent. 



Four persons died from this cause 

 last October in Brazil, Indiana, for 



an account of which I am indebted 

 to the attending physician, Dr. John 

 T. Price. The poisonous fungi were 

 eaten at noon October i6th, and two 

 died on the i8th, late, and two on the 

 22d, one about noon, the other at six 

 P. M. The physician says they had 

 towards the last no particular pain, 

 but that decomposition had evidently 

 set in before death. 



I relate these terrible accounts to 

 show what serious effects may follow 

 the use of these plants for food, and 

 also to show, by the course of the 

 disease, that there is reason to suspect 

 an organic growth as the cause of the 

 disastrous consequences. 



But I have also introduced these 

 unpleasant facts to show what a 

 change must be wrought in these 

 same poisonous fungi by the process 

 of cooking, steeping in vinegar, and 

 the various processes of catsup-mak- 

 ing, for it is well known that all sorts 

 of mushrooms are collected and used 

 for this purpose with no ill effects. I 

 once was asked to taste of some sup- 

 posed mushrooms which had been 

 collected two or three weeks before 

 and placed in strong vinegar, and 

 was assured that they had been eaten 

 with nothing but pleasant remem- 

 brances of the fine flavor. Yet these 

 were certainly poisonous when col- 

 lected. 



In conclusion, it may be said that 

 all poisoning from plants cannot be 

 explained by reference to living 

 organisms. We know that garden 

 vegetables, usually innocent and 

 healthful, are at times really poison- 

 ous, especially when eaten raw, as we 

 eat radishes, cucumbers, etc. Certain 

 kinds of grasses are commonly said 

 to be poisonous to animals, though 

 the plants of the order Graminece are 

 so free from any deleterious proper- 

 ties that botanists have long doubted 

 the accuracy of the observations upon 

 which poisonous properties were 

 attributed to them. After a care- 

 ful perusal of the injuries caused 

 by the famous though misrepre- 

 sented Upas tree, there does not 



