294 
Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist'' [Oct. 1, 189^1. 
Some varieties, as the Russules, act directly on 
the digestive organs, causing there an acute 
inflammation ordinarily from two to three hours 
after they have been eaten. These are very 
seldom fatal. An emetic such as ipecacuanha, or, 
still better, 10 grammes of emetic mixed with 
30 grammes of sulphate of soda in a glass of water, 
to be taken in two draughts at intervals of live 
minutes, will be sufficient to free the stomach and 
save the patient. 
Other varieties, such as some of the Amanitm, 
are far more dangerous. Their poisonous principle 
is a narcotic, acting, not on the digestive organs, 
but directly on the nervous system. The effect 
takes place from six to forty-eight hours after 
eating the mushrooms, when the poison has all 
passed into the blcod. It first causes headache, 
confusion of ideas, dejection, and stupor. Then 
follow nausea, vomiting, palpitations, acute abdo- 
minal pains, oppression, and intense thirst. The 
face is pale and panged; conifulsions, delirium, 
and fantastic visions bring the patient into 
a comatous state. That condition, which is 
accompanied by intense pains all over the body, 
may continue for many days. But the result is 
uearly always fatal. Large draughts of strong 
tea or coffee are used to counteract the prostration. 
When the stomach is entirely free from the poi- 
sonous substance, then use ether and ammonia 
to prevent nervous accidents. Should the patient 
recover, he remains for a long time very weak, 
and the greatest care and precautions are to be 
used during his convalescence. 
Such a terrible possibility as the above desci ibed 
should, it seems, be sufficient to deter anyone 
from eating mushrooms. Fortunately there is, 
according to Mr. de Zaczewsky, a perfectly safe 
means of eating with impuuily even the most 
poisonous of mushrooms. It was discovered many 
years ago by Mr. Gerard, assistant botanist of the 
.Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In tlie presence of 
a commission appointed for the purpose by the 
Academie des Sciences, he ate, and every member 
of his family did the same, some of the most 
poisonous varieties. The experiment was so con- 
clusive that the members of the commission 
joined in the feast, and enjoyed with impunity 
some of the deadliest varieties of the Amanitce. 
The recipe is simplicity itself. Copy it, and 
paste it in a conspicuous place. 
For every pound of mushrooms cut into pieces, 
take 1 quart of water, add to it 2 or 3 spoonfuls 
of vinegar or of salt. Soak the mushrooms in this 
for two hours. Then strain off the water and 
throw it away, as it contains all the poisonous 
principle of the mushrooms. Kinse the mush- 
rooms well and boil in water for a quarter of an 
hour. Wash them in hot water and prepare in 
the usual way, 
GENERAL ITEMS. 
Mr. t). H. Maury, engineer and superintendent 
of the Peoria Waterworks Company, Illinois 
(U.S.A.j, writes as follows to Uiifftneenn^ News :— 
In your issue of llth May, 1 note an abstract 
from a paper read by Mr, Ernest R. Woakes, before 
the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the 
item quoted relating to the necessity in the tropics 
of felling timber during the waning moon. I can 
entirely corroborate Mr. Woakes's statements iu 
this connection, and I am all the more glad to do 
so because he is an old friend, as I happened to be 
for several years engaged in engineering work 
near him in Columbia, South America. It 
was an absolutely invariable rule there that 
all timber should be felled in or during 
the waning of the moon. The creciente, or the 
periods of the moon's increase, was employed 
in sawing the felled timber, all work having to be 
done by hand with a pitsaw. I have repeatedly 
tested the effect of the tropical moon on timber. 
On one occasion, in building a fence of the native 
bamboo, I had all the bamboo cut from the same 
thicket, and felled it all, except enough for one 
panel, during the waning moon. This one panel, 
which was cut while the moon was waxing, t urned 
black in a few days, and had begun to rot in less 
than six weeks. The rest of the fence grew white 
and hard, and was in perfect condition when last 
I saw it, some three years after it was built. In 
making clearings for mining work, I liave fre- 
quently noticed the rise and fall of the sap in the 
stumps of the felled tree^, and have observed the 
sap to continue during each creciente to runout of 
the pores on the top of the stump down the sides 
of the stump for several months after the tree had 
been felled. During menguante, the same stump 
would be dry. 
A writer in the Australian Pastora list's liecitic 
says : — As I am a firm believer in tiie efKcacy of tl)e 
divining rod, your article on it in the Recicw of 
the 15th instant attracted my attention, as it 
should tl'.at of all who have to do with sinking for 
water in dry country. Sceptics may scoff, and 
unbelievers laugh as ihey like, but I assert there 
is a virtue in the divining rod ; that it will indicate 
where underground streams are flowing, and that 
with certainty and accuracy when used by a person 
in whose system there is more than the average 
amount of electricity. The person holding the rod 
is, as it were, the battery, and, by holding the rod 
(I use a copper wire bent in a semicircle) at arm's 
length with one end of the rod towards him, will 
continue to attract it until he passes over some- 
thing possessing a greater power of attraction than 
his body. If you liold the rod so tightly in your 
hand that it cannot twist round, it will rise up 
fully 45 per cent, if the subtle power arising from 
the earth be fairly strong. Upon one occasion, 
when experimenting with the rod in the south- 
west of South Australia, it rose to perpendi- 
cular, aud then dipped slightly from me. 
When you have passed beyond the greater 
attraction than is possessed by the "diviner," 
the point of the rod will turn towards the holder. 
I have found the rod work better in summer 
than winter — sultry weather for choice. 
Says an Exchange : — There are four items which 
every owner of cows should constantly remember. 
The first is to keep a record of the milk production 
of each cow for a year (if he can record the 
butter yield and cost of food for each, so much 
the better). The second point is to prevent 
the production of horns OU his young cattle by 
