THE DEADLY AMANITA 69 



that the deadly toxic principle has at last found its 

 enemy in the neutralizing properties of the equally 

 deadly atropine. 



It would seem, moreover, from the severe personal 

 experience of Mr. Julius A. Palmer, that the poison 

 of the Amanita is quite capable of mischief without 

 being taken into the digestive organs. So volatile is 

 this dangerous alkaloid that it may produce violent 

 effects upon the system either through its odor alone, 

 or by simple contact with the skin and consequent 

 absorption. 



Mr. Palmer, in his before-mentioned article in the 

 Moniteur Scientifique, Paris, relates the following ex- 

 periences : 



" Once while perspiring from a long walk I under- 

 took to bring in a large bunch of the Amanita for 

 an artist. Seated in a close car, hold- 

 Poisons jj^„ them in my warm hand, although 



by contact 1 , r ? 1 



and odor protected by a paper wrapper, a fearful 



nausea overcame me. The toadstool 

 was not at first suspected, yet I had all the symptoms 

 of a sea-sick person, and was only relieved by a 

 wide distance between myself and the exciting cause. 

 " While writing this article," he continues, " a friend 

 sent me two very elegant specimens of the Amanita 

 tribe. They were in a confined box. On opening 

 it I smelled of them a few times, and allowed the 

 box to lie near my desk while I wrote to a medical 

 gentleman anxious to procure such for chemical ex- 

 periment. Having sent them away the matter was 

 dismissed from my mind for three hours after, when, 

 by an attack of vomiting and oppression at the stom- 



