220 



II. The stomach should now be emptied — after a wait of 

 fifteen minutes if the above remedies are used or at once if they 

 are not used. I know of one life probably saved by mustard and 

 water after eating a large piece of Amanita verna. Household 

 emetics are always on hand. Soap suds, a tablespoon of salt 

 and a cup of tepid water, mustard, one-half teaspoonful to a cup 

 of tepid water, one half cup of linseed oil or sweet oil. These 

 remedies will always occasion prompt vomiting and if they do 

 not the victim should swallow about a quart of tepid water and 

 the index finger should be shoved over the back of the tongue into 

 the throat and held there, pressing forward on the base of the 

 tongue until the contents of the stomach are rejected. This 

 should be repeated several times until no more pieces of mush- 

 room are observed in the ejected material. At a pharmacy one 

 may obtain syrup of ipecac or sulphate of copper solution (30 

 grains copper sulphate), both of which are efficient emetics. 



III. The third step in the emergency treatment is the use 

 of a purge to bring from the intestinal tract any of the poison 

 which has passed from the stomach. For this purpose a table- 

 spoon of Epsom salts dissolved in a glass of water or two ounces 

 (six tablespoons) of castor oil should be administered fifteen 

 minutes after the victim has stopped vomiting. The purge 

 should not be withheld because the victim is already purging. 

 Diarrhoea is an indication for the use of a purge. 



IV. If the patient becomes exhausted and stimulants are 

 necessary, coffee and tea (both very strong) may be used. Al- 

 cohol should never he administered by the stomach in cases of mush- 

 room poisoning. Strangely enough, it is the one thing people are 

 always recommending and it is usually at hand. 



Alcohol dissolves the poison from the mushroom very rapidly, 

 and then both alcohol and poison are quickly absorbed by the 

 victim. Therefore alcohol used when there are any remnants 

 of mushroom in the victim's stomach will increase the poisoning 

 and may cause a fatal result where one might possibly without 

 the alcohol have made a recovery. A physician may use alcohol 

 by hypodermic injection but it must never be swallowed. 



V. These means having been used there is not much else to do 



