Toadstool Poisoning and its Treatment 



per cent, of water. In other words, i gram of the dried equals 6.4 

 grams of the fresh. 



Comparing the lethal doses of the dried with the lethal doses of the 

 fresh extracted by glycerine and alcohol, it does not appear that there 

 is any great loss of the toxicity by drying as is shown by the following : 

 Lethal dose of dried in Experiment 31 was .085 gram, per kilo of body 

 weight; in Experiment 55, .033 gram, per kilo caused early death, 

 while .223 gram, of dried per kilo and .120 gram, per kilo caused 

 death from late effects (Exps. 32 and 57). The lethal doses of the fresh 

 were .91 gram, per kilo (Exp. 29) and 1.055 gram, per kilo (Exp. 

 36) when a glycerine extract of the fresh growth was used, while 1.222 

 gram, per kilo (Exp. 16) made from an alcoholic extract failed to kill. 



It may be well to introduce here the results of an experiment which 

 shows there is no highly poisonous volatile material given off from the 

 A. phalloides. This is rather an important fact to determine, as the 

 opinion is held by some that there is a volatile poison, and most of my 

 experiments were made with the dried fungus. A I per cent, solution 

 of fresh A. phalloides was distilled until three-fourths of the fluid had 

 passed over as distillate. The latter was injected into the vein of a dog 

 and found not at all toxic. The opportunity has not been afforded me 

 of repeating this experiment personally, but Dr. J. P. Arnold has kindly 

 repeated it for me, injecting the distillate into rabbits and frogs and failed 

 to find it toxic. Certainly if there is any volatile poison in the A. phal- 

 loides it must be either in very minute quantity or very slightly toxic. 



ANTIDOTAL VALUE OF ATROPINE. 



In arriving at any conclusion we must bear in mind the variation of 

 different animals in their susceptibility to poisons. Thus, to give the 

 greatest difference observed, .085 gram, dried Amanita muscaria 

 per kilo of body weight killed one dog in an hour, while in another 

 dog .223 grams, of the same preparation per kilo only killed after 24 

 hours, the cardiac inhibition having disappeared one-half hour after the 

 poison was injected. However, an average of six (6) experiments on 

 cats and dogs with dried A. muscaria in which no antidote was given 

 shows the lethal dose to be .103 gram, per kilo of body weight. The 

 average of four (4) experiments, in which the fungus, dried in the same 

 way, was used but atropine was given as an antidote, gives the lethal 

 dose of .335 gram, per kilo and death only occurred late in each case. 



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