160 
of the peoples of the old world in che distinctions between the 
poisonous and harmless varieties could only have been obtained 
from many accidents. How common mushroom poisoning actu- 
ally was, however, is not known to us. It must have been fairly 
frequent since the deaths of several notables from this cause 
have been recorded in history, not as occurring from some unex- 
plained phenomenon but from accidents of a nacure well-recog- 
nized by their contemporaries. Of such victims may be men- 
tioned the family of the Greek poet Euripides, including his wife, 
two sons, and a daughter; see Clement VII; Emperor ake 
Emperor Charles VI; Emperor Claudius; and a number of othe 
Coming down to more oe. times our first definite ee 
of the number of fatalities from mushrooms came from Paulet 
the knowledge of fungi possessed by men of his generation, 
established the various species upon firm ground, gave accurate 
descriptions of their botanical characters, and pointed out their 
physiological properties. Indeed, many of the species of the 
present day were established by fe tireless French mycologist. 
re recenily, our knowledge of the extent to which mush- 
toom fatalities may occur in France has been augmented by the 
publications of Bardy who reported 60 cases in that district 
known as Les Vosges, and of Guillaud who estimated the number 
of deaths in the southwest of France at about 100 annually. 
Falck has also reported 53 cases in Germany with 40 deaths, and 
at the same time Inoko in Japan has reported over 480 cases of 
mushroom intoxication in eight years. In this country Palmer, 
of Boston, collected 33 cases with 21 deaths and Forster, of 
Charlestown, 44 cases with 14 fatalities. Finally, in 1900, Gillot 
found over 200 authentic cases of mushroom poisoning mostly in 
France, and Ford, a few years later, eae nearly as many more 
found in the German, English and French literature since 1900. 
