MUSHROOMS AS FOOD 



are easily affected by unfavorable treatment or indigestible 

 substances, yet he has never experienced any discomfort from 

 eating mushrooms. He has eaten them frequently, partaken 

 of many different species, and experimented with a consider- 

 able number of species not classified as edible. The explana- 

 tion is simple. They have always been eaten in moderate 

 quantity. In my opinion, cases of sickness and digestive 

 derangement that have been attributed to poisonous proper- 

 ties of mushrooms are sometimes really due to the excessive 

 use of species that otherwise are perfectly harmless. 



In some countries where edible fungi are commonly and 

 extensively employed as food, even species which we regard as 

 unwholesome are utilized. They are soaked in vinegar or in 

 salt water for the purpose of destroying or rendering inert 

 their noxious properties. They are then carefully washed 

 and thrown into hot water for a short time, after which they 

 are treated in the usual way. This practice is not recom- 

 mended. Aside from the danger arising from the inefficiency 

 of the treatment in some cases, it is very improbable that any 

 mushrooms so treated would still retain a very agreeable 

 flavor. There is, besides, no need of running any risks with 

 doubtful or suspected species, for the number of those known 

 to be good and safe is sufficiently great to satisfy all reasonable 

 demands. Possibly the time may yet come when the noxious 

 properties of poisonous mushrooms may be utilized with ad- 

 vantage in medicine, but such species should not be used as 

 food. He who is too ignorant to recognize with confidence 

 the species known to be good, would better abstain from 

 such food entirely unless he can avail himself of the knowledge 

 of some one who can recognize them. 



A few edible fungi appear early in the season, but with us 

 July, August and September are the months when the great- 

 est variety is to be found. The fairy-ring mushroom and the 

 glistening coprinus sometimes appear in June, and successive 



275 



