140 
The Toxicity of Certain Mushrooms of the Genus A manita 
is a short but important paper by Radais and Sartory in the 
Rev. Scien. du Bourbonnais, etc., 24: 97-8. In view of the 
serious aspect of mushroom poisoning this last fall in our vicinity 
this warning seems to be applicable here as well as in Europe. 
During the week of September 9, I911, at least twenty-two 
persons lost their lives and many more were made seriously ill 
by mushrooms in the vicinity of New York. A translation of this 
French article follows. 
“The autumn of 1911 has brought the usual outbreak of 
mushroom poisoning, with many fatal cases, caused primarily 
by eating Amanita phalloides Fr. The press considered that it 
was doing a useful thing in spreading among the people, with the 
authority of naturalists whose intentions were more laudable 
than their knowledge, the incorrect and dangerous notion that 
in treating the mushrooms with boiling water followed by repeated 
washing in cold water, all danger in eating them had been 
removed. For a long time mycologists have recognized that 
this treatment will often remove certain very soluble bitter and 
poisonous principles but they have never ceased to put people 
on their guard against the inefficiency of this method in the case 
of certain species, especially Amanita phalloides. The present 
seems to be an opportune time to confirm this caution with 
experiments. Our observations were made upon several poison- 
ous species but with special reference to A. phalloides. We may 
sum up the results of our experiments in the following words: 
A. phalloides still preserves its toxic principle unchanged after 
being heated to boiling for some time; in the dried state its 
toxicity is not weakened after standing a year nor has it lost 
its poisonous properties after remaining dry for six years; the 
poison is still held in the tissues of the mushroom after boiling 
with water. 
" Therefore it is very unwise to spread broadcast the erroneous 
idea that all poisonous mushrooms may be rendered harmless by 
boiling with water and- then washing repeatedly in cold water.” 
—E. D. €. 
