176 



Mycologia 



however, atropin cannot wholly prevent the harmful effects caused 

 by eating Amanita muscaria, possibly because there are other toxic 

 substances present in the plant. Harmsenf held this opinion as a 

 result of his study of this fungus. He found that atropin was 

 not a complete antidote for extracts of Amanita muscaria, and 

 furthermore, that weight for weight his preparations from the 

 fresh plant were twice as toxic as pure muscarin. From his 

 experiments upon cats and dogs he calculated that if muscarin 

 alone were responsible for the toxic effects of this plant, it would 

 be necessary for a man of average weight to eat four kilograms 

 of the fresh fungus in order to receive the lethal dose of pure 

 muscarin. Therefore he postulated the existence of another poi- 

 son in A manita muscaria, calling it " Pilz-toxin." He claimed that 

 this substance, when separated from muscarin in extracts of the 

 fungus, was not neutralized by atropin, and produced long- 

 continued convulsions and ultimate death. The work of Harmsen 

 upon his " Pilz-toxin " has never been confirmed, but most of the 

 evidence, clinical and otherwise, indicates that muscarin may not 

 be the sole factor involved in cases of poisoning by Amanita 

 muscaria. Ford* has also shown that in this species there are 

 present peculiar substances that first cause an agglutination and 

 finally a solution of the red corpuscles of the blood. However, 

 muscarin is probably the toxic substance of greatest importance in 

 Amanita muscaria because it withstands heating, whereas the asso- 

 ciated materials which affect the blood as above stated, are 

 destroyed by heat, and thus are prevented from acting after the 

 ingestion of the cooked fungi. 



Amanita phalloides is even more dangerous than Amanita mus- 

 caria because there is no known antidote for its poisonous prin- 

 ciple. Several investigators have studied the poisons of this plant, 

 but Fordf alone seems to have been able to isolate and learn the 

 properties of its poisonous substances. The results of poisoning 



f Harmsen : Zur Toxicologic des Fliegenschwammes. Archiv. £. Expt. Path, 

 u. Pharmacologic 1906, 1, p. 361. 



* Ford : Distribution of poisons in the Amanitas. Jour. Pharmacol, and 

 Expt. Therapeutics. 1909, i, p. 275. 



f Ford : Distribution of haemolysins, agglutinins and poisons in fungi, es- 

 pecially the Amanitas, Entolomas, Lactarius and the Inocybes. Jour. Phar- 

 macol, and Expt. Therapeutics. 1911, ii, p. 285. This paper has a complete 

 bibliography. 



