PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



and the serum of such rabbits will neutralize five to eight times the lethal 

 dose for guinea-pigs, and is anti-hemolytic for the hemolysin of Amanita, 

 when diluted to i-iooo. As he and Abel had found this hemolytic poison 



of Amanita phattoides to be a glu- 

 coside, this observation is to be 

 interpreted as a successful pro- 

 duction of an antibody for a 

 non-protein poison, a glucoside. 

 This substance corresponds to 

 the phallin of Robert, which is 

 usually given as the active 

 principle of this deadly toad- 

 stool. Wells suggests that prob- 

 ably this hemolytic poison is 

 not the important agent in 

 poisoning by Amanita phalloides, 

 as it is easily destroyed by heat 

 and the digestive fluids. The 

 thermostable poison, amanita- 

 toxin, gives no reactions for 

 either glucosides, or proteins and 

 does not confer any antitoxic 

 property to the blood of im- 

 munized animals. Amanita- 

 toxin kills acutely, the animals 

 dying in 24-48 hours, and show- 

 ing no changes beyond a fatty 

 degeneration of the internal or- 

 gans. The hemolysin kills 

 slowly in three to ten days, 

 causing local edema and hemo- 

 globinuria. 



Symptoms. V. K. Chestnut gives a synopsis of the symptoms of 

 poisoning by Amanita phalloides. "The fundamental injury is not due, 

 as in the case of muscarin, to a paralysis of the nerves controlling the 

 action of the heart, but to a direct effect on the blood corpuscles (see above) 

 These are quickly dissolved by phallin, the blood serum escaping from the 

 blood vessels into the alimentary canal, and the whole system being 



FIG. 13. Amanita phalloides. (After 

 Patterson, Flora W. and Charles, Vera K.: 

 Mushrooms and other Common Fungi, 

 Bull. 75, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 1915, Fig. 2.) 



