TheiWesttAmericantScientist 



No. 2605 Broadway, San Diego, California 



VOLUME XVIII. WHOLE NO. 137. 

 DECEMBER, 1913 



O 



Established 1884. 



THE WEST AMERICAN SCIENTIST. 



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Single copy, 10 cents. 



Charles Russell Orcutt, Editor and 

 Publisher. 



EDIBLE AND POISONOUS FUNGI 



(The following is from the annual re- 

 port of the state botanist of New York, 

 1894, by Charles H. Peck.) 



*** Many who would gladly avail them- 

 selves of the agreeable and highly nutri- 

 tious food afforded by our edible fungi are 

 debarred from doing so by a lack of the 

 knowledge necessary for a proper dis- 

 crimination between the edible and the 

 poisonous or worthless species. With this 

 knowledge, the fear of the bad would no 

 longer prevent the use of the good. With 

 it many whose circumstances are such as 

 to make it difficult or impossible to secure 

 an adequate supply of animal food might 

 often obtain a very good substitute for it 

 by the slight labor of gathering it in the 

 ileldo and woods. 



European works on the subject are less 

 satisfactory, because the species in this 

 country are not wholly the same as in 

 that. Some of them are not readily pro- 

 curable because of their high price, others 

 and cheaper ones are less desirable be- 

 cause of deficiency in th number or char- 

 acter of their illustrations. 



*** A compound microscope and a mi- 

 crometer are necessary to ascertain the 

 shape and size of the spore. 



***** 



That there are dangerous species whose 

 use as food should be most carefully 

 avoided is an acknowledged fact, but the 

 number of such species is far less than 

 many suppose. According to the authority 

 of those who have especially investigat- 

 ed this subject, the dangerously poisonous 

 species found in this country all belong to 

 a single genus, Amanita. About a dozen 

 species of this genus have been found in 

 our state, and of these, two are known 

 to be harmless and edible, three or four 

 only are commonly classed as poisonous, 



and probably a single one of these is re- 

 sponsable for a vast majortiy of the fatal 

 accidents resulting from "mushroom 

 poisoning." There are, however, some 

 species in other genera that are capable 

 of causing nausea, vomiting and derange- 

 ment of the digestive organs. They are 

 unwholesome because of their persistently 

 bitter, acrid or otherwise disagreeable 

 flavor, or because of toughness of texture 

 or the possession of some quality repug- 

 nant to the stomach. They may indeed 

 cause sickness and vomiting, but the irri- 

 tation they induce is soon apparent and 

 quickly causes the rejection from the sys- 

 tem of the offending substance and then 

 the normal condition of the system is 

 soon restored. Sometimes recovery in 

 such cases may be hastened by the ad- 

 ministration of some simple emetic which 

 will assist the stomach in its efforts to 

 expel the unwholesome material. 



The dangerous species do not appear 

 to possess such irritating qualities. The 

 symptoms of sickness do not appear till 

 several hours after eating, generally eight 

 to fifteen. Then the face exhibits an 

 ashy paleness, there is distress in the 

 region of the stomach, resulting in nau- 

 sea, vomiting and relaxation of the bow- 

 els, the extremities become cold, the 

 pulse feeble, the sight affected, and finally 

 stupor and death follow if relief is not 

 obtained. To this kind of poisoning, at- 

 ropine, the active principle of Atropa 

 belladonna, has been found to be an anti- 

 dote. It has been administered in the 

 doses of one-180th to one-90 of a grain 

 according to the severity of the case, and 

 the dose may be repeated if necessary. 

 It should be administered in subcutaneous 

 injections. 



For two thousand years or more people 

 have made use of mushrooms for food 

 and from time to time death has resulted 

 from their use, either through ig- 

 norance or carelessness. Still men per- 

 sist in their use, and those who would 

 use them if they dared frequently ask 

 how they may distinguish mushrooms 

 from toadstools, the word "toadstools" 

 indicating them to be poisonous or harm- 

 ful species. Many attempts have been 

 made to answer this question and many 

 rules have been formulated by the obser- 

 vance of which, it has been claimed, all 

 difficulty and danger would be avoided. 



