July 23, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



105 



and has reported an extensive series of 

 intoxications. The victims showed in ad- 

 dition to vomiting, diarrhoea, and a dila- 

 tation of the pupils, peculiar nervous man- 

 ifestations. The feeling of "bien-eti'e" 

 expressed by singing and laughing, the 

 sensation as of insects crawling over the 

 skin, visions of beautifully colored reptiles 

 and snakes, red, yellow and brown, all con- 

 tribute to give us a picture of a peculiar 

 mental state, which differs from that de- 

 scribed among the Russians, not so much 

 in the kind of drug causing the symptoms 

 as in the different psychology of the Orien- 

 tal as compared with the Tartar. In all 

 cases the intoxication with Amanita pan- 

 therina is mild and i-ecovery the rule. 



The poisonous fungus Eelvella or Gyro- 

 mytra esculenta Fries occurs so i-arely in 

 this country and is so seldom the reputed 

 cause of illness at the present time, that 

 we need not pay any particular attention 

 to it beyond referring to its active prin- 

 ciple, Helvellic acid, isolated by Boehm and 

 Kiilz.-" This is a hemolytic or blood-de- 

 stroying substance, soluble in hot water, 

 which when given to dogs by mouth will 

 reproduce the lesions found in man with 

 all the signs of a hemolytic intoxication. 

 Other species of mushrooms like Eussula 

 emetica cause profound gastro-intestinal 

 disturbances such as a sharp attack of vom- 

 iting and diarrhoea, recovery following 

 emptying of the stomach and bowel of the 

 irritating plant. Certain of the rank- 

 smelling phalloidea; which exhale an of- 

 fensive odor and are of course never eaten 

 by man, are eagerly devoured by swine 

 with uniformly fatal consequences. Gillot 

 {I. c.) states that one or two species of 

 Volvaria have caused death when eaten, 

 but nothing is known of the nature of the 

 intoxication or of the active principle. 



="80611111 and KUlz, Arch. f. cxp. Path. u. 

 Pharm., 1885, 19, p. 403. 



Finally the poisonous Boletus luridus or 

 Boletus sataiius may occasionally be the 

 cause of transient di.sturbances in man, 

 but the plants have such a rank, unpleas- 

 ant taste as to forbid their consumption in 

 any quantity. These species have been said 

 to owe their toxicity to muscarine. The 

 question as to whether the ordinary edible 

 mushrooms, as distinguished from the 

 poisonous toadstools, may not in certain 

 localities or at certain periods of the year 

 be the cause of fatal intoxication, may be 

 answered, I am sure, in the negative. Old 

 or badly decomposed specimens may cause 

 transient illness, and I remember well an 

 attack of cholera-morbus which I experi- 

 enced in Paris from eating dried specimens 

 of the meadow mushroom, purchased in 

 the open market. There are, however, no 

 authentic cases of poisoning from the 

 black or brown spored agarics and when 

 investigated in the laboratory, these species 

 are found free from toxins. The three or 

 four forms already mentioned are the only 

 ones thus far proved to be poisonous and 

 the only ones with which laboratory in- 

 vestigation has confirmed clinical observa- 

 tion. 



In addition to Amanita phalloides and 

 Amanita vertia, I have also analyzed 

 Amanita rubescens Persoon^^ collected at 

 Woods HoU, Mass., and a species from the 

 same place which I identified as Amanita 

 solitaria Bulliard. It corresponded closely 

 in its general appearance to the plates 

 and descriptions given for this species. In 

 Amanita rubescens I found a powerful 

 blood-destroying substance like the ama- 

 nita-hemolysin which could be freed from 

 proteid and which gave the reactions for 

 glucosides. Amanita solitaria had a pecul- 

 iar action upon blood corpuscles, causing 

 their agglomeration in densely adherent 



" Ford, Jour, of Infect. Dis.. Vol. 4, No. 3, .June, 

 1907, pp. 434-439. 



