34 MYCOPHAGY. 



stomach testified no displeasure. To eat a horse is, no 

 doubt, much less enterprising than to feast upon fun- 

 guses, many of which are virulently poisonous, and some 

 of which vary in their qualities, so that what is safe 

 here now may be the reverse at another time elsewhere. 

 Although, then, as the French newspapers express it 

 when speaking of doubtful political rumours, we must 

 commend funguses " with a certain reserve," we never- 

 theless hope to interest our readers by telling of their 

 good qualities as well as their bad, and explaining their 

 not unimportant functions in the wise economy of nature. 

 Being passably honest, we hope, and not wholly 

 without prudence, as we verily believe, we do not wish 

 to hide from ourselves or our amiable readers that the 

 rnycophagist may pay dearly for gratifying his palate, 

 even though his hastily- summoned medical attendant 

 may not pronounce him moribund ; and therefore we 

 have not only alluded to Dr Badham's sufferings, but 

 now also warn those seeking acquaintance with fun- 

 guses, that the mere tasting of some of them experi- 

 mentally will produce contraction of the jaws, sickness, 

 pain and heat in the stomach, as well as slight delirium. 

 Bad may go to worse, and the unhappy inquirer may 

 be afflicted with giddiness, debility, loss of sight and 

 recollection, burning thirst, vomiting, fainting, and 

 violent gripes nay more, a man who has been poisoned 

 by eating funguses may not know his perilous con- 

 dition until suddenly made aware of it, many hours 

 after partaking of his last fatal meal, when it is too late 

 to adopt measures to eliminate the poison. We thus 

 chronicle the perils of mycophagy, because Dr Badham's 

 praises thereof are so eloquent and so witty, and the 

 beautiful delineations of his friend Mrs Hussey are so 

 inviting, that we fear some wanderer amid our summer 

 fields or autumnal glades may be too rash in tasting of 

 the lauded fungi. In fact, in a particular instance, 

 when comparing Badham's figure of a certain species 

 with that figured in the admirably illustrated work of 



