TOADSTOOL POISONING AND ITS TREATMENT 



BY W. S. CARTER, M. D. 



Professsor of Physiology and Hygiene, University of Texas, Galveston, Texas. 



THE poisonous mushrooms v or so-called toadstools, may be grouped 

 in two classes: (i) Those containing minor or irritant poisons, which 

 act locally on the gastro-intestinal tract, such as the Clitocybe illudens, 

 Lepiota Morgani and others, and (2) those containing major poisons 

 which act on the nerve centers after absorption, causing symptoms to 

 appear a long time after the poison has been taken and very often ter- 

 minating fatally. This group includes the Amanita muscaria, the 

 Amanita bulbosa or Am. verna and the Amanita phalloides. 



From the prompt way in which vomiting and purging begin after 

 eating the toadstools of the first group there seems to be no doubt of the 

 local irritant action on the alimentary canal. Grave symptoms from 

 any constitutional effect or any serious disturbances of the circulation do 

 not occur. Although intensely disagreeable, such poisoning terminates 

 in recovery and may not be regarded as dangerous unless the poison be 

 taken in enormous quantity or by one in poor health. 



In poisoning by the deadly toxic Amanitae vomiting and purging may 

 also occur as prominent symptoms, but generally only occur late ten 

 to fifteen hours after eating the toadstool and are due to the action of 

 the poison on the nerve centers. This is clear from the fact that these 

 symptoms appear when the poison is given either hypodermatically or 

 intravenously to animals. 



It is exceedingly unfortunate that these deadly poisonous toadstools 

 do not give some warning either in an unpleasant taste or contain an 

 irritant which would act locally to cause emesis and purgation, for in 

 that case the patient would get rid of the poison before such large 

 quantities were absorbed and fatal poisoning would be less frequent. 

 They are not at all unpalatable and sometimes large quantities are eaten 

 by mistake 



621 



