108 THE BOTAI^ICAL MABAZINE: [Voi. xxv. no. m 



Fr. is not new to science ; it has been known for a long time 

 in Asia, Europe, and America as one of the poisonous fungi. 

 Because of the poison in its milky juice it is widely known in 

 Germany under the name ''giftreizker" and '^giftmllchling," but 

 asfar as I am aware, it was never reported until now that this 

 fungus has such queer effects upon the body. So I think it 

 may not be useless to make a short reference to the medical 

 certification of its poisonous effects. 



III. Cases of Persons Poisoned by the Fungus. 



Case 1.— This is a case examined in November 1890 by 

 TsuNE Iso, then the chief doctor in the Fukushima Hospital. 



1st patient Kamaji Sato 48 years old. 



2nd patient Yasutaro Sato, son of K. Sato . . 11 years old. 



3rd patient anonym, wife of K. Sato 39 years old. 



4th patient anonym, daughter of K. Sato. . . 24 years old. 



5th patient anonym, daughter of K. Sato. . . 17 years old. 

 (a family of peasants living at Hirano-mura, Shinobu-gori, Fukushima 

 prefecture.) 



These five persons ate on the evening of Oct. 19th. 1890 

 and on the following morning portions of a fungus which had 

 grown in a bamboo-forest. On the morning of the 20th., the 

 first and the third patients felt in the extremities of the limbs a 

 pain and heat, which gradually spread to the wrists and ankles, 

 but never went beyond those articulations. The pain seemed 

 to migrate here and there, a feeling similar to that experienced 

 when the limbs are suddenly heated after having been benumbed 

 by the cold. The affected part was slightly inflamed and red- 

 dened just as in the case of a burn. As the pain increased, the 

 patients prepared grated radish, which in Japan is often used as 

 food, and spread it over the aftccted parts. The pain wasslight- 

 ly diminished on the evening of the same day, when the second, 

 fourth, and fifth patients began to suffer in the same manner. 

 They tried to dip their limbs into cool water relieving the 

 pain somewhat, but when the limbs were taken out of the water 

 the pain became as severe as ever. . Thinking that they were 



