180 



Mycologia 



a very evanescent bitterness in the raw state. I thought perhaps 

 the combination of the eggs and mayonnaise with the mushrooms 

 had something to do with the effects, as my wife and I, the only 

 ones who ate both in any amount, were the chief sufferers. In 

 my case the beating of the heart, full head and sweating were very 

 marked, though I ate but half as much as the others." 



In this case we are fortunate in having a physician's careful de- 

 scription of the symptoms following the meal of harmful mush- 

 rooms. It should be noted that these symptoms were caused by 

 the cooked fungi. That fact, taken with the nature of the 

 symptoms, rapidity of recovery, etc., would indicate a toxic sub- 

 stance having more the nature of muscarin than that of blood- 

 laking substances or of the " amanita-toxin," which, under anal- 

 ogous conditions, acts slowly. 



EXPERIMENTAL 



The Chemical Methods of the Investigation 



The general features of the clinical data in this case of poison- 

 ing seemed to indicate the action of an alkaloid. In some prelim- 

 inary experiments it was found that the toxic principle could be ex- 

 tracted by hot or cold 95 per cent, alcohol, and that the evapora- 

 tion residue from such toxic extracts, after being dissolved in 

 water, yielded a slight yellowish precipitate with potassio-mer- 

 curic iodide (Mayer's reagent). We then applied to the available 

 specimens of Inocybe infida the method of Harmsen* for the 

 preparation of muscarin from Amanita muse aria. The air-dry 

 plants of Inocybe infida are very small, those of average size 

 usually weighing from 0.1 gram to 0.3 gram. The dry plants 

 were powdered in a coffee-mill and treated as follows : 



The powder was extracted twice for twenty-four hour 

 periods with ten times its weight of 95 per cent, alcohol. The 

 extraction was carried out at room-temperature with an occasional 

 thorough shaking. The alcoholic solutions were evaporated to the 

 consistency of a thick syrup on a water-bath. The syrup was 

 extracted with a small volume (15-25 c.c.) of 95 per cent, alcohol. 

 This extract was also evaporated to the consistency of a syrup, 



* Harmsen : see footnote, page 176. Slight modifications of the method 

 were introduced. 



