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and is dissolved out by hot water and volatilized by drying, 

 while another says it is neither destroyed nor dissolved by heat 

 or acid. The later group of observers also say that these mush- 

 rooms if eaten young and fresh contain none of the poison, but 

 the poison develops in old and stale specimens. 



Poisoning often results fatally and there is a record for the last 

 ten years in Germany of fifty cases with ten deaths from eating 

 the Gyromitra e'scidenta. 



Symptoms: Phalline causes symptoms only after it has been 

 absorbed into the blood, therefore the symptoms appear from 

 6 to 12 hours after ingestion. Then the red blood corpuscles are 

 disintegrated and oxygen starvation ensues. The succession of 

 symptoms are distress, vomiting, purging, feebleness, vertigo, 

 convulsion and unconsciousness. If death does not take place 

 recovery ensues after several days. Autopsy reveals destruction 

 of the blood and all the blood-forming organs and lesions of the 

 liver, kidney and intestinal tract develop. 



I have known a dinner party of eight people to eat freely of 

 what appeared to be the Gyromitra esculenta and the juice resul- 

 ting from cooking, without experiencing any difficulty. The 

 toxicity seems to depend upon the age and freshness of the fruit, 

 the cooking, the climate and soil, as well as upon individual sus- 

 ceptibility. 



Conclusion for this Class. — People with good digestion may eat 

 young and freshly gathered specimens of Helvellas and Morells 

 if they have been well cooked. They should first be boiled ten 

 minutes before preparing them in other ways and the water thrown 

 away. Proper specimens if dried may afterwards be cooked and 

 eaten. 



Group III. Mushrooms Producing Gastro-enteritis.- — This class 

 includes such forms as Panus stipticus, Boletus sensibilis, Can- 

 tharellus aurantiacus (false chanterelle), Lepiota morgani (with 

 green spores), Russula emetica, Lactarius torminosus, Stropharia, 

 Amanita muscaria, and all peppery tasting Russulae and Lac- 

 tarii. The edibility of these forms is extremely doubtful, some 

 authorities regard them as poisonous, others regard some as 

 edible, still others believe that by special methods of cooking they 



