MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS 239 



In fatal cases, the stupor continues from one to two or three days, 

 and death at last ensues from the gradual weakening and final stop- 

 page of the heart's action." Fortunately an antidote has been found 

 in the hypodermic injection of atropine in doses of one-hundredth to 

 one-sixtieth of a grain. Strong emetics should also be used to rid the 

 stomach of the offending food. The action of phaUin from Amanita 

 phalloides (Fig. 95) for which no antidote is known except the adminis- 

 tration of emetics and the transfusion of blood into the patient, which 

 may be of httle avail is best summed up in Chestnut's account: "The 

 fundamental injury is not due, as in the case of muscarin, to a paralysis 

 of the nerves controlling the action of the heart, but to a direct effect 

 on the blood corpuscles. These are quickly dissolved by phallin, the 

 blood serum escaping from the blood-vessels into the alimentary canal, 

 and the whole system being drained rapidly of its vitahty. No bad 

 taste warns the victim, nor do the preliminary symptoms begin until 

 nine to fourteen hours after the poisonous mushrooms are eaten. There 

 is then considerable abdominal pain and there may be cramps in the 

 legs and other nervous phenomena, such as convulsions and even lock- 

 jaw, or other kinds of tetanic spasms. The pulse is weak, the abdom- 

 inal pain is followed rapidly by nausea, vomiting, and extreme diarrhcea, 

 the intestinal discharges assuming the rice-water condition characteristic 

 of cholera. The latter symptoms are maintained persistently, generally 

 without loss of consciousness, until death ensues, which happens in 

 from two to four days." 



B. Gasteromycetes. — The fungi known as the Gasteromycetes 

 {yacTrip = belly, sac -|- hvkt\s = fungus) have the basidial layers, or 

 hymenium, enclosed within a peridium, as in the common puff-ball. 

 The shell or hull enclosing the masses of spores is called the peridium, 

 which is a simple uniform layer in some genera {Scleroderma) , or it con- 

 sists of two distinct layers, the exoperidium and the endoperidium. 

 The earth-star (Geasier) has a thick outer peridium, which splits in a 

 stellate manner, later becoming reflexed. The exoperidium in such 

 genera as Bovista and Lycoperdon is a loose pliable coat often having 

 spines and warts. Many of the genera are stalkless, but other genera, 

 such as Tylostoma, are stalked. Inside of an unripe puff-ball, we find a 

 white fleshy mass of soft cellular matter, the gleba. As the fruit 

 bodies grow they become chambered. The chambers, in countless 

 numbers, are narrow, irregularly curved and branched, separated from 



