FUNGI AS FOOD. 51 



they yield the several component elements of which 

 animal structures are made up ; and many of them, in 

 addition to sugar, gum, resin, a peculiar acid called 

 fungic acid, and a variety of salts, furnish considerable 

 quantities of albumen, adipocere, and osmazome, the 

 principle which communicates its peculiar flavour to 

 meat gravy. 



Dr Marcet has also proved that, like animals, they 

 absorb oxygen largely, and disengage in return from 

 their surface a large quantity of carbonic acid, and that 

 in lieu of the latter many give out hydrogen, and some 

 azotic gas. Badhana is eloquently vehement in de- 

 nouncing our folly in rejecting an article of food the 

 constituents of which are so nutritious and savoury; 

 while even the calmer Berkeley regrets that in this 

 country we should be surrounded by so large a quantity 

 of wholesome and pleasant food, of which we cannot 

 avail ourselves from mere ignorance. 



" The common mushroom, the truffle, and morel, are 

 valuable articles of commerce ; but more especially the 

 first, whether in a fresh state or in the form of ketchup. 

 The extent to which this latter article is prepared is 

 quite astonishing. A single ketchup merchant has, at 

 the moment at which I write, in consequence of the 

 enormous crop of mushrooms during the present season, 

 no less than 800 gallons on hand, and that collected 

 within a radius of some three or four miles. The price 

 of mushrooms for ketchup, in country districts, varies 

 very greatly in different years. In the district in which 

 I write, it has not in the present year reached a penny 

 per pound, while in some years as much as fivepence is 

 readily given. In years of scarcity, almost any species 

 that will yield a dark juice is without scruple mixed 

 with the common mushroom, and, it should seem, with- 

 out any bad consequence, except the deterioration of 

 the ketchup. The best kind is undoubtedly made from 

 the common mushroom (Agariqus campestris), and espe- 

 cially from that variety which changes to a bright red 



