78 



Mycologia 



the fungi, I can conceive that decompositions may take place that 

 are not evident as putrescence, resulting in poisonous compounds. 

 Such changes might be arrested or facilitated by the conditions in 

 the alimentary canal and become effective inversely as the vigor 

 and rapidity of the digestive process. If there is any truth in 

 this speculation, then it follows that a person who may have eaten 

 without injury any of those species characterized as " harmless to 

 some, poisonous to others " at one time, might be poisoned by the 

 same species at another time. 



In the process of disintegration, nocuous products undoubtedly 

 do develop from innocent compounds, but, further, it is quite con- 

 ceivable that the strength of poisonous principles may vary in the 

 same species of mushroom or that even some alkaloid may be 

 normally present in one set of conditions and be absent in another. 

 On what other theory can one explain the experience reported 

 by Dr. Cleghorn in the October number of Good Housekeeping? 

 Cbprinus comatus ranks very near the common meadow mush- 

 room in general popularity, and in the literature of mycophagy it 

 is usually spoken of with unqualified commendation, yet here is 

 an experience in a neighborhood where the shaggy-mane was 

 " formerly eaten with pleasure " in which ten persons in four 

 different families were made so ill as to require medical aid. The 

 symptoms as reported by Dr. Cleghorn are interesting enough to 

 repeat. In some cases these appeared in a few minutes after 

 eating, in others after several hours. They exhibited a well- 

 marked intoxication, with failure of muscular coordination, blood- 

 shot, dilated eyes, incoherent speech, and drowsiness, but without 

 depression of the action of heart and lungs. 



The variability of the effects produced by eating mushrooms 



or toadstools raises a number of very interesting questions, the 



consideration of which from any point of view increases the 



sense of responsibility attendant upon recommending almost any 



of these plants as articles of diet to the uninitiated. 



London, Ontario, 

 Canada. 



