EUTHALLEPHYTA EUMYCETES AMANITA 237 



differs from the common mushroom in having gills which are always white, never pink or 

 purple, and in having a hollow stem which is bulbous at the base and clothed with irregular, 

 fringy scales on all the lower part. The pileus varies in color from a brilliant yellow to 

 orange and a deep red, the yellow and orange being more frequent than the red. The 

 surface is polished and has scattered over it a larger or smaller number of prominent, 

 angular, warty scales, which can be easily scraped off. The gills and stalk are white, and 

 there is a large membranous '.collar, which hangs down from the upper part of the stem. 

 The general appearance together with the color of the pileus and gills noted above, are 

 such that it is difficult to conceive how anyone who has ever seen a common mushroom or 

 read a description of one could mistake this fly agaric for the mushroom. Nevertheless, in 

 the writer's experience, no fungus is so often collected by mistake on the supposition that 

 it is the common mushroom, and it is to the fly agaric that recent cases of poisoning in 

 Washington, D. C., were due. 



Distribution. Widely distributed in Europe and North America. Professor 

 Coville, in speaking of this species after the death of Count Achilles de Vecchj, 

 and Chung Yu Ting, says: 



The fly amanita is one of the largest, handsomest, and most dangerous of our mush- 

 rooms, and is the one whose character has been the most fully studied of all the poisoning 

 species. It is abundant about Washington in the fall, growing in pine woods, a favorite 

 situation in these woods being the vicinity of abandoned hog beds. The specimens that 

 caused the death of Count de Vecchj came from a pine wood about a mile west of Fort 

 Myer, between Balls Crossroads, and Columbia Pike. 



Poisonous properties. The chief active poisonous principle of the fly 

 amanita is an alkaloid called muscarin, but other poisonous substances, the 

 chemical nature of which is not yet fully known, also occur in the plant. 



Professor Atkinson, in discussing the Toxicology of the species, says as 



follows : 



The substance, Cholin, is of wide occurrence in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 

 It has been isolated from Amanita muscaria, A. rantherina, Boletus luridus, and Helvella 

 esculenta. It is not very toxic, but on uniting with oxygen it passes over to muscarin. 

 According to Robert the substance formed from cholin on the decay of the mushrooms 

 containing it is not muscarin but a very closely related alkaloid, neurin. This transforma- 

 tion of a comparatively harmless alkaloid to an extremely deadly one simply by the partial 

 decay of the plant in which the former is normally found, emphasizes very much the wisdom 

 of rejecting for table use all specimens which are not entirely fresh. This advice applies 

 to all kinds of mushrooms, and to worm-eaten and otherwise injured, as well as decayed 

 ones. Neurin is almost identical in its physiological effects with muscarin which is described 

 below. 



Muscarin is the most important because the most dangerous alkaloid found in the mush- 

 rooms. It is most abundant in Amanita nuiscaria, it is also found in considerable quantity 

 in Amanita pantherina, and to lesser, but still very dangerous extent in Boletus luridus and 

 Rust-ilia emetica. It is quite probably identical with bulbocin, isolated from Amanita phal- 

 loides by Boudier. Muscarin is an extremely violent poison, .003 to .005 of a gram (.06 

 grain) being a very dangerous dose for a man. Like other constituents of mushrooms, the 

 amount of muscarin present varies very greatly with varying conditions of soil and climate. 

 This, indeed, may account for the fact that Boletus luridus is regarded as an edible mush- 

 room in certain parts of Europe, the environment being such that little or no muscarin 

 is developed. 



Cases of Mushroom poisoning are frequent in some countries. Gaillard 

 estimated the number of deaths in France at about 100 cases. Among the 

 Americans deaths are not so numerous, although Palmer of Boston, has found 

 33 cases with 4 deaths. 



Inoko of Japan, reports 481 cases in 8 years. The peasants of the Caucasus 

 prepare an intoxicating beverage from Amanita muscaria from which many 

 individuals die. 



Muscarin acts on the nerve centers, but cases seldom terminate fatally. 



