A CONSIDERATION OF THE PROPERTIES 
OF POISONOUS FUNGI 
William W. Ford and Ernest D. Clark 
Introduction 
The collection of edible fungi, commonly spoken of as mush- 
rooms in contradistinction to the poisonous varieties known as 
toadstools, has become more and more popular during the past 
few years in America. On the one hand, the number of well- 
trained mycologists who undertake the study of fungi during the 
summer months as a scientific pastime, regardless of the dietetic 
value of the material they obtain, has been greatly augmented by 
those individuals who look everywhere for the edible species which 
they have learned to identify with great accuracy. In conse- 
quence, mushroom collecting has become something of a fad in 
many of our summer resorts and during September and October 
the fields and pastures are pretty thoroughly searched for such spe- 
cies as the meadow mushroom, Agaricus campestris. On the 
other hand, this country has seen, during the past decade, a great 
influx of peasants from Italy, Hungary and Bohemia where even 
the children know the difference between poisonous and harmless 
mushrooms. As a result, many of the edible species of fungi 
which grow in the woods are gathered by this foreign-born popu- 
lation either for themselves or for sale in the local markets. In 
consequence of this greater interest in the subject, mushroom 
poisoning has become somewhat more common in America despite 
the warnings issued from time to time, both to native Americans 
who are ignorant of the first principles of mycology, and to our 
foreign-born citizens who are misled by the variations in color and 
other properties which fungi exhibit in different countries. Pois- 
oning by fungi, however, is by no means a modern occurrence. 
Indeed, mushrooms have been collected from time immemorial, 
according to Paulet , 1 in such countries as Russia, China, Hungary, 
Italy, and especially in Tuscany; being exhibited for sale in the 
public markets in cities like Pekin, St. Petersburg, and Florence. 
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