260 



several manuscript copies of it in America, and in Spain. 

 It was printed for the first time, in 1723, in the History 

 of the Province of Venezuela by Oviedo, vol. i, p. 206. 

 Complaints no less violent, on the conduct of the monks of 

 the 16th century, were addressed directly to the Pope by the 

 Milanese traveller, Girolamo Benzoni. 



Note B. 



The milk of the lactescent agarics has not been separately 

 analysed j it contains an acrid principle in the agaricus 

 piperatus 5 and in other species it is sweet and harmless. 

 The fine experiments of Messrs. Braconnot, Bouillon-La- 

 grange, and Vauquelin (Annates de Chimie, vol. xlvi, p. 211 ; 

 vol. li, p. 75; vol. Ixxix, p. 265; vol. lxxx, p. 272; vol. 

 Ixxxv, p. 5), have pointed out a great quantity of albumen 

 in the substance of the agaricus deliciosus, an edible mush- 

 room. It is this albumen contained in their juice, which 

 renders them so hard when boiled. I have mentioned above 

 the experiments I made in 1796, to prove that morels 

 (morchella esculenta) can be converted iuto a sebaceous and 

 adipoeerous matter, capable of being used in the fabrication of 

 soap. {De Candolle, sur les Proprie'tes med. desPlantes, p. 345.) 

 The saccharine matter had already been found in mushrooms, 

 in 1791, by Mr. Gunther (See my Aphorismi ex Physiologia 

 chem. Plantarum, in the Flora Friberg, p. 175). It is in the 

 family of the fungi, more especially in the clavariae, phalli, 

 helvetiae, the merulii and the small gymnopae which display 

 themselves in a few hours after a storm of rain, that organic 

 nature produces with most rapidity the greatest variety of 

 chemical principles, sugar, albumen, adipocire, ace tat of 

 potash, fat, ozmazome, the aromatic principles, &c. It 

 would be interesting to examine, beside the milk of the 



