MUSHROOM. 3? 1 



therefore, the surfeit of them may suffocate 

 and empoyson, and this sheweth that they 

 are windy, and that their windiness is gross 

 and swelling, not sharp and griping." 



Mushrooms are now cultivated in mo-t 

 parts of Europe, as a delicious food ; but in 

 no country is the cultivation so general as in 

 England, where they are now to be procured 

 at all seasons of the year ; and little or no 

 apprehension is now entertained Respecting 

 their dangerous qualities, since they have 

 become the care of our gardeners. 



Mr. Bradley states, that he has seen a 

 hundred kinds of mushrooms in England, 

 besides those small ones which arise from 

 the mouldiness of liquors, &c. It is, there- 

 fore, as absurd to condemn all mushrooms as 

 poisonous, as it would be to abstain from car- 

 rots, parsnips, and celery, because the roots 

 of some other umbellated plants, such as 

 the water-hemlock, the drop wort, &c. are 

 known to be venomous. 



We have never heard of any persons hay- 

 ing suffered from eating cultivated mush- 

 rooms, although they are in such general use 

 in London and so much demanded in the 

 markets ; while in Paris, where they have 

 few but what are gathered in the fields, there 



2 b 2 



