OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
19 
extended. The patella, reflex was obtained in the interval between the con- 
vulsions. The thorax was full of noisy rales. The abdomen was flat and soft, 
the extremities cool but not cold. There was no rigidity, nor was there any 
opisthotonos. Treatment was by a rectal injection of brandy and hot. water, 
the injection of atropine, and the inhalation of nitrite of amyl, all of which 
proved ineffective. Ur. Johnston attributed death, to paralysis of the respiratory 
centre and of the heart. Since other members of the family were unaffected, 
and this child had previously eaten .mushrooms without experiencing any undue 
symptoms, he came to the conclusion that the patient, iiad eaten the one 
poisonous fungus on the dish, probably an Amanita. He alternatively suggested 
that an Agasricus eampestris, the common mushroom, growing on some foul 
medium and absorbing poison therefrom or being attacked itself by some 
parasite (Hutchinson) might be the cause. The mushrooms had not been kept 
long enough to undergo any fermentative process aiding in the production of 
some ptomaine. 
During J914 two instances were reported in the daily press of poisoning 
from fungi, believed at the time to be the common mushroom. At Pinkenba, 
near Brisbane, seven men were taken ill after having eaten steak and “mush- 
rooms” for breakfast. Stomach pumps were used at the hospital, and all were 
well enough to leave in the afternoon. In May, two men lost their lives near 
Moora, on the Midland Railway, in Western Australia, through mistaking some 
poisonous agaric for the “mushroom.” Their ages were AS and 127. About 
1 p.m. these two and a mate ate the “mushrooms.” Shortly after all three 
complained of pains in the stomach. During the night, one died, and the second 
succumbed about 9.20 next, morning. The third recovered. 
In May, 1922, near Mount Gambier, a little boy of three years became ill 
after eating mushrooms and died next day. The symptoms manifested have 
not been recorded. It is possible that some poisonous toadstool was incorporated 
amongst the mushrooms by mistake. From time to time reports have been 
furnished of persons becoming ill after eating mushrooms, usually ones found 
growing under trees in the Mount. Gambier district. Those found in such 
situations are considered by some local residents to be distinctly unwholesome. 
A communication from Dr. Burnard, of Mount Gambier, elicited the following 
information: — The majority of the mushrooms in the district are big and coarse, 
and most of the trouble seems to be purely indigestion on account of this 
coarseness and toughness. These mushrooms grow in the open fields sometimes 
in the form of large rings. The various medical men in Mount Gambier knew 
of no eases of definite mushroom poisoning through these mushrooms, though 
Dr. Hawkins thought lie had been poisoned by them with symptoms of an 
influenzal type. The trouble in every case seemed chiefly due to indigestion. 
The mushrooms found growing under pino trees, he says, arc usually “wormy,” 
that is, infested with the maggots of certain flies. It is possible that if such 
wormy mushrooms are eaten they may be more liable to give rise to trouble. 
Some species of toadstool give, rise to a kind of intoxication. A former 
colleague of mine told me how Ms parents ate once a dish of mushrooms, and 
as the meal progressed they gradually became more and more hilarious, the 
most simple remark giving rise to peals of laughter. The intoxication passed 
oft without any unpleasant effects. Probably some poisonous kind had been 
included, possibly one of the dung-inhabiting species. 
HIGHER FUNGI AS INJURIOUS AGENTS. 
Apart from the poisoning of human beings through eating by mistake an 
injurious species of “mushroom” or toadstool, t lie higher fungi nmv lend in 
other ways to financial loss. The most important of these affect forestry and tin. 
timber trade. The mvcelia of bracket fungi growing on living forest trees 
permeate the subjacent heart-wood perhaps for a. considerable distance. This 
renders it necessarily unfit as timber. The forester, seeing such a bracket fungus, 
will recognise at once that the wood of the affected tree will be more or less 
damaged, depending on the species concerned. It may, in fact, be quite useless, 
and not only so but the tree with its fungus parasite may be a danger to other 
trees. \\ lien the bracket forms and its spores are liberated, some of these may 
effect an entrance into other neighbouring healthy trees. As fresh brackets are 
formed periodically, the forester notes the trees affected and lias them cut down 
as a precautionary measure. In this State the common Australian punk, Polyporus 
