215 



and toxic albumins, including pilz-atropin, and destroys the 

 acrid resinoid). 



3. Steep in vinegar five minutes (removes muscarine). The 

 poisons are now removed or neutralized. 



4. Cook as desired. 



Group V. Stimulating only the Nervous System. — ^This group 

 includes Panaeolus campanulatus, P. venenosus, and P. retirugis 

 and P. semiglohatus. 



The symptoms occasioned by the pilz-atropin contained in 

 this group have been elaborated in the earlier part of this com- 

 munication. 



Conclusions . — The symptoms were purely those of a stimu- 

 lated nervous system. I can not conceive that a full meal of 

 these mushrooms could cause death. The poison may be dis- 

 solved out by steeping and soaking in salt and water. The water 

 used should be rejected. 



Group VI. Mushrooms Causing Cell Destruction after a Pro- 

 longed " Incubation.''- — This series which cause a destruction of 

 certain cells of the body after a prolonged period of unmanifested 

 activity are excessively dangerous and usually fatal. The poison 

 can 7iot he removed before ingestion by any method yet known. It is 

 not volatile, is not dissolved out, nor destroyed by boiling nor by 

 acidulated water. The pity is that when once the symptoms 

 appear the poison has been entirely absorbed, is ready to explode 

 as it were, and the whole illness is so sudden, so violent, so hope- 

 less that these features alone have caused the general condemna- 

 tion of all mushrooms except the one commercial form. It is 

 astonishing that as small a quantity as one-third of a cap of 

 Ama7iita phalloides caused symptoms in twelve hours and death 

 in ninety hours afterward.* The poison is also much more rapid 

 and fatal in infants and youths and curiously enough it is the 

 mushrooms of this class which are oftenest gathered and eaten in 

 error. Therefore the Amanitas are not only the most dangerous 

 mushrooms but they appear to be also the most frequent causes 

 of poisoning. The toll of death is heavy^ — Gillot states it is 63 

 per cent. Roch estimates the mortality as 49 per cent, and 



* Plowright, Lancet, 2: 941. 1897. 



