THE DEADLY AMANITA 7 1 



same box. The noxious ones were rejected, and the 

 esculent washed and eaten. In a moment my appe- 

 tite was gone ; violent perspiration, vertigo, and trem- 

 bling were the next symptoms ; then chills, nausea, 

 purging, and tenesmus, all within thirty minutes. Now 

 the substance could not have reached the intestines. 

 The virus absorbed from the noxious fungus perme- 

 ated the whole system through eating the harmless 

 ones ; unmixed with other food it acted upon the 

 muscles through an empty stomach ; once spent, the 

 ailment passed off," etc. 



From these and other experiences he draws the 



following conclusions: The poisonous principle of a 



fungus being absorbed by a harmless 



Poison element, if the latter be eaten the ven- 

 extracted 



by vinegar om acts more quickly. In reinforce- 

 ment of this he states that " if the 

 Amanita be cut in sections and laid in vinegar the 

 fungus may be eaten without danger to life ; but on 

 a very small dose of the vinegar, death will follow 

 more speedily than if the whole toadstool be eaten." 

 Further interesting matter upon this topic is con- 

 tained in the article from which I quote, and to 

 which the reader is referred in his volume included 

 in my bibliographical list. The work also contains 

 numerous other collected articles of Mr. Palmer's 

 upon this subject of fungi, to which he has devoted 

 so much attention, and with which his name has be- 

 come so popularly identified in America. 



The allusion to vinegar as an absorbent of the poi- 

 son suggests the prevalent habitual use of salt as a 

 safeguard by many in the employment of the fungus 



