114 OCCASIONALLY FATAL. 



taste is pleasant, and the victim has no warning of the 

 trouble in store until, after some hours, the effects of the 

 poison begin to be felt, often too late for remedy. 



The principal poison is phallin, an extremely deadly 

 member of the group called toxalbumens, which chemi- 

 cally resemble ordinary albumens such as 

 The Poison. 



white of egg. Like white of egg, phallin 



coagulates if boiled. If the Death Cup were prepared by 

 soaking in salt water, in which the phallin is soluble, and 

 thoroughly cooked it would produce no harm, but in too 

 many cases where this toadstool is mistaken for a whole- 

 some mushroom such precautions are not taken and 

 fatal results follow. 



Robert studied the effect of phallin thoroughly in 1891. 

 and discovered that the poison acts chiefly on the blood 



corpuscles, which are dissolved. The blood be- 

 Symptoms. ' 



comes unable to perform its functions, blood 



serum escapes into the intestine, and the vitality of the 

 whole system is lowered until death results. The first 

 effects do not appear until nine to twelve hours after eat- 

 ing, when abdominal pain begins, sometimes accompanied 

 By cramps in the legs, convulsions and lockjaw resembling 

 tetanus. Vomiting and diarrhoea follow, and these symp- 

 toms continue till death, which may not take place for 

 from two to four days. "Rice water" stools as in the case 

 of cholera, are said to be a characteristic symptom. 



When the poisoning is discovered, care should be taken 

 to remove all undigested parts of the toadstool from the 

 Tr stomach and intestine. There is no known 



antidote for phallin, but if the symptoms in- 

 dicate the presence of muscarin-like substances the drugs 

 used in case of poisoning by Fly Agaric should be ad- 

 ministered- Blood transfusion with salt solution or with 



