98 LATENCY. 



pulp and fibre. But, in the splendid work on mushrooms, 

 by M. Paulet, published in 1812, we are told that the ex- 

 tract and alcoholic tincture, and even the juice of the 

 agaricus bulbosus and vernus, when given to dogs, did not 

 make them sick in less than ten hours after their adminis- 

 tration. 



Christison mentions the poisoning of six persons by the 

 Hypophyllum sanguineum or toad-stool (Puddock-stool), 

 in Scotland, most of whom were attacked, after the lapse 

 of twelve hours, one after twenty hours, one after twenty- 

 four hours, and the last in about thirty hours. 



Gmelin quotes seventeen cases, which did not exhibit 

 symptoms of toxication until the expiration of a day and 

 a half after the meal at which the poison was swallowed. 



Corvisart's journal relates, that of some soldiers, who ate 

 of the agaricus musearia, a part were attacked with gastric 

 symptoms almost immediately, but that others w r ere indis- 

 posed only after the lapse of more than six hours, of 

 whom four died. 



In the Histoire des Champignons of J. Roques, we are 

 told that a dog, fed on a patie made of the agaricus vene- 

 natus, exhibited symptoms of uneasiness only after an in- 

 terval of ten hours. The same author relates cases where 

 longer periods of time were necessary to develop the 

 poisonous effects of .the amanita citrina and the agaricus 

 maleficus. 



We see, then, that the poison of the fungi may remain 

 apparently inactive for from an hour or two to even a day 

 and a half, and that, too, when swallowed in large quan- 

 tity. If we were now to look for any known poison as 

 explanatory of the latency of malaria, should we not be 

 inclined to say, that only that of the fungi exhibited, in 

 this respect, a strong analogy? We know of no other 



