APR-ifiit".]^'- • V KAWAMUBA.~^6N A POISONOUS FVNGUS, Yll 



hkii' mors detailed facts about tHis case. These phases of iil- 

 hess were Common in the four men, but the degree of the pain 

 #afei not the same in each case. The fourth patient suffered so 

 severely that a physician gave her several black pills which, 

 they say, made her condition much worse in as much as her 

 hands and feet broke out in sores. Then the physician declar- 

 ed that the festering would spread over her limbs unless the 

 injured portions were removed immediately by a surgical opera- 

 tion, and that an operation would save her life. The alarmed 

 parents and relations of the girl consulted about the matter, 

 but they agreed to defer the operation, because they thought 

 that it w^ould be worse for her to live without the limbs than 

 to die. 



Although her toes had fallen off the festering did not ex- 

 tend towards proximal portion of her limbs. She was cured 

 some months after and is still living in Wakamatsu. 



I wished to illustrate this case by a picture but she did 

 not wish to have her maimed limbs photographed. Therefore 

 I sent her several drawings of hands and feet asking her to 

 indicate on these the effects of the disease, and received her 

 answer. By means of these we can understand how severe 

 the action of the poison was upon her limbs. 



Case 3.— A. case examined by Keizo-Yamanouchi, a phy- 

 sician in Taira, Fukushima prefecture in October 1887 : 



1st patient anonym (man) 67 years of age. 



2nd patient ,, (wife of Ist-patient) . . 57 years of age. 



3rd patient ,, (son of Ist-patient) . . 21 years of age. 



4th patient ,, (daughter of Ist-patient). 24 years of age. 



(a family living in Taira, Iwamae-kori, Fukushima prefecture.) 



A family composed of these four persons ate once every day 

 for four days about forty mushrooms commonly called. ''Sasa- 

 take," cooked with bean-curd in Shoyu-soup. The fourth patient 

 was poisoned first, five days after they had taken the food, 

 the second and third patients the next day and the first patient 

 two days later. The symptoms were great heat and pain in 

 the limbs beyond the wrist and ankle articulations, especially 

 in the palm and the sole. The affected portion was reddened 



