MUSHROOMS :m 



"If, on tin* contrary, mushrooms are prepared 

 without having first been cooked in boiling water, 

 we expose ourselves to the danger of a poisonous 

 juice. 



"The cooking in boiling water to which salt has 

 been added is so efficacious that, in order to solve 

 this serious problem, certain persons have had the 

 courage to eat for whole months the most poisonous 

 mushrooms, prepared, however, in the way I have 

 just told you." 



"And what happened to them?" asked Simon. 



"Nothing at all. It is true that these persons pre- 

 pared their poisonous mushrooms with the most 

 scrupulous care." 



" There was reason for it. According to you, 

 then, one could use all mushrooms without distinc- 

 tion!" 



' * Strictly speaking, yes. But that would be going 

 too far, much too far. There would be the fear of 

 incomplete preparation, insufficient cook- 

 in-. I only affirm that you must submit 

 mushrooms of good repute in the neigh- 

 borhood to the preliminary cooking in 

 boilinir \\nter. If, by chance, some pois- poisonous 

 onous ones were included, the poison Mushroom 

 \\ould in this way be eliminated and no accident 

 would happen; 1 would hct my hand on that." 



"What y,u have just tau-ht us, Maitre Paul, will 

 be profited by, you may he sure. Are we ever |iiite 

 certain that there is nothing poisonous in what we 

 gather!" 



