AMANITINK AND 1T8 ANTIDOTK 
:il 
A3IAjN1TI]SE AM) ITS ANTIDOTE. 
UV CHAKl.KS MACILVAIN'K, OK AOKM'H IA . 
((.’oricluded t'rorn page 9. j 
The caps niiige in color from tlie bright scarlet ot the Anjaiiita mus^ 
carius, or poison-fly agaric, to the lemon-yellow of the A. mappa, and 
pure satiny white of the xV. bemus and xV. phalloid. Their stems are free 
from the gills, and are surrounded near the top with a kid-like apron or 
ring. xVt the base of the stem is a bulb tchich is covered with a sheath or 
rolva. From this sheath or volva the poisonous Amanita invariably 
springs. As the investing membrane, in the shape of warts, ring, or 
volva, is frequently evanescent, one or all may be absent in aged plants : 
but the volva or remains of it, is almost universally found, if the plant is 
carefully removed from the ground. They grow in woods, unculti¬ 
vated ground, on the margin of pastures near woods in fence cor¬ 
ners, and by their great resemblance when young to the common 
mushroom are frequently mistaken for it. The common mushroom 
never has a volva. and is seldom found in woods, ft has pink and purple 
gills, and a much shorter stem than the Amanita. 
To Mr. Julius A. Palmer, of Boston, is due the segregation of the 
x\.manita group, and the pointing to it as the only one known to contain 
s the subtile deadly alkaloid which is the subject of this article—Amanitine. 
In an article from his pen, contributed to the Moniteur Scientijique^ of 
Paris, 1879, he says: “Mushrooms are unfit for food by decay, or other 
cause producing simply a disagreement with the system, by containing 
some bitter, acrid, or slimy element, or by the presence of a wonderful 
and dangerous alkaloid wdiich is absorbed in the intestinal canal. This 
alkaliloid, so for as is known, is found only in the Amanita family.’’ 
So long ago as 18H8. Drs. Currie, Vigier, Smidberg. and Koppe, 
isolated this alkaloid, and it has formed a part of our pharmacopia since 
that time. 
The toxic properties of the xVmanita have long been known. The 
inhabitants of Northern Russia drink a decoction of, or eat the dried 
Amanita muscarius (poison-fly agaric) for the purposes of narcotism and 
intoxication, and the urine of those who have partaken of it is in demand 
tor future orgies, which is similar to those produced by alcohol. 
M Sicard. author of the “ Ilistoire Naturelledes Champignons Comes¬ 
tibles et V"inineux,“ Paris. 188H, experimented with Amanitine on dogs. 
He says : “ Recently 1 have sought an appropriate antitiote—an antidote 
of wiiich the effects after absorption should be diametrically opposed in 
the system to those produced by the alkaloid of the mushroom—defined 
as an acrid and stupefying poison.” After the absorption of the poison 
by a dog, M. Sicard. in follow ing up his theory, injected subcutaneously 
two milligrammes of nitrate of pilocarpine, and a half hour afterwA'irds a 
sei'ond injection with the same dose. After friction and the admini.stru- 
