Ford and Clark: Properties of Poisonous Fungi 177 
never been clearly understood and the symptoms shown by the 
Koraks who employ the fungus as an intoxicant are seldom seen 
either in Europe or in America. Possibly the method of pre- 
serving the plants may alter the poisonous principles in them or 
possibly the Siberian plants do not contain the same poisonous 
substances as the European or American varieties. Death, how- 
ever, is by no means an infrequent occurrence among the Koraks 
from an overdose of Amanita muscaria and, as we shall see later, 
the active principle of the European plants, muscarin, has also 
been obtained from the Siberian. 
Autopsies upon individuals dead from the ingestion of Amanita 
muscaria have revealed surprisingly little. The pathological 
changes in the internal organs seen with Amanita phalloides are 
lacking, particularly the hepatic lesions. In general, the findings 
point to the action of a profound nerve poison (Ford 2 ). 
Poisonous constituents 
As has already been indicated most of the early work upon the 
poisons in fungi was conducted upon poorly identified plants or 
upon lots of fungi containing a number of species, and it was not 
until the middle of the last century that any satisfactory work 
was accomplished upon Amanita muscaria. In 1869 Schmiede- 
berg and Koppe 29 took up the study of this fungus, investigating its 
poison from both the chemical and pharmacological standpoint. 
By the most careful work they showed that Amanita muscaria 
contains an active principle of definite chemical composition which 
they called muscarin. This was at first regarded as an alkaloid 
of the same general nature as strychnin and morphin but later 
work has shown that it is probably a complex ammonia derivative. 
Muscarin is an extremely active substance and is present in the 
fungus in but small amounts. Nevertheless, it is able to exert its 
characteristic effect, frequently with fatal outcome. Its prin- 
cipal action is upon the various organs of the body through the 
nervous system. It produces an increased secretion from the 
mucus membranes and from various glands, for instance, by its 
stimulation of the terminal filaments of the secretory nerves, and 
at the same time a paralysis of the heart and respiration by a 
corresponding stimulation of the inhibitory nerve endings of the 
