SCIENCE 



Friday, July 23, 1909 



COXTEXTS 



The Distrihuiion of Poisons in Mushroo7ns: 

 Pbofessob William W. Fobd ■ . 97 



Xotes on Electrical Engineering at the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology 108 



Educational Section of the Brilish Association 109 



Scientific Notes and Xeics 109 



University and Educational News 112 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Remarks on Recent Contributions to Cos- 

 mogony: Pbofessob F. R. Moulton. Com- 

 municating with Mars: T. C. M. " Typhoid 

 Mary ": Pbofessob W. P. Mason 113 



Quotations: — 



Mr. Latham's Aeroplane 118 



Scien t ific Books : — 



Osgood's Revision of the Mice of the Amer- 

 ican, Genus Peromyscus: Db. Edgab A. 

 JIeabns. Schryver on the General Char- 

 acter of the Proteins: Pbofessob Lafay- 

 ette B. Mendel 119 



Special Articles: — 



Notes on Some Salamanders and Lizards of 

 North Georgia: H. A. Allabd 122 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Geological Society of Washington: 

 Fbancois E. Matthes. The Academy of 

 Science of St. Louis: Pbofessob W. E. 

 McCoubt 124 



MSS. inteoded for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 reTiew should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrlsun-on- 

 Indson, N. Y. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF POISONS IN 

 MUSHROOMS'^ 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



Edible and poisonous mushrooms have 

 been of great popular interest from time 

 immemorial, and the earliest histories at- 

 test the extensive use to which the harm- 

 less varieties were put, both by the peas- 

 ant population of the world, forced by dire 

 necessity to eat everything that grows, and 

 by the wealthy classes, driven to the same 

 end by the demands of the epicure 's palate. 

 Paulet- with whose "Traite des champ- 

 ignons" all mycologists must begin their 

 studies, relates that mushrooms have from 

 antiquity been sold, especially during Mid- 

 Lent, in the public markets of Pekin, St. 

 Petersburg, Florence and in other cities 

 and towns in Tuscany. The ancient 

 Babylonians and early Romans employed 

 the edible species in great quantity, and 

 the amanita which seems to me the most 

 beautiful of all agarics, especially when 

 the developing plants are seen in the 

 mountains of North Carolina, the Amanita 

 ccesaria, owes its name to a Latin ruler. 



The most interesting of the early cases 

 of mushroom or, as commonly described, 

 toadstool poisoning and one of the first 

 authentic eases on record, occurred in the 

 family rf the Greek poet Euripedes, who 

 lost in one day, wife, daughter and two 

 sons, who in the poet's absence partook 

 of the deadly species. Among the great 

 ones whose lives were sacrificed to the 

 same icnrrance may be mentioned the 

 Pope Clement VII., the Emperor Jovian, 



' Address delivpred before a special meeting of 

 the Boston ^Tyfolopical Club. June 14. inOfl. 



^Piuilet. " Tr.iite des champignons." Paris, 1793. 



