JUCIINAL OF MYCOLOGY 
LVoi.. 11, 
tion of five j?rammes of nitrate of potash dissolved in one hundred 
grammes of a solution of marshmallows, the dog recovered. “ In strict 
truth,” says M. Sicard, “I must say that the dog never recovered his 
normal condition ; but the progress of the poison ceased, and he at least 
lived.” 
Dr. Gautier, in a work entitled ’‘ Les ('hampignons.” Paris, 1884, 
says: ”The use of atropine has been advised, not only to combat narcotic 
symptoms, such as those produced by opium poisoning, but as an antidote 
tor muscarine—not yet perfectly isolated from the Amanita muscarius.” 
The experiments that we have made upon animals in order to study the 
antagonism of atropine, and reciprocally, against the toxic elements of 
the Amanita bulbosus. Amanita muscarius, etc., have furnished negative 
results only. Yet it would be irrational to conclude that it lacked in 
efficacy upon man; and in all cases of poisoning by toad-stools where 
nervous symptoms are manifested, it would be prudent to try the use of 
atropine in the dose of from 4 to 0.002 of a milligramme. 
The experience that we have reached in the search for an antidote 
against the action of the poisons of the Amanita, Lactarius, etc., by 
means of the subcutaneous injection of many substances, have given 
equally negative results. It is, however, important to continue tliese 
experiments, especially in the presence of the results obtained by Letellier. 
(The experiments of Letellier were confijied to attempting the precipitation 
of the poison by the use of tannin, i 
Experiments upon frogs were made with atropine, using it as the 
antidote for Amanitine, and vice versa, with pronounced success ; but not 
until August, 1885, was atropine successfully brought face to face with 
Amanitine in the human system, as happened in the case of load-stcKd 
poisoning in the Faris family, of Shenandoah, Pa., coming undei’ the 
charge of Dr. S. E. Shadle, of that place, whose report will be found very 
valuable as indicating the symptoms of poisoning from eating of the 
Amanita vernus, and the treatment pursued by him. 
Immediately upon noticing these cases of poisoning in the public 
prints, the writer addressed a letter of impiiry to Shenandoah, which was 
fully responded to by Dr. Shadle, and samples of the toadstools eaten b> 
the Fans family—selected by Mr. Faris, one of the survivors of the pois¬ 
oning—were forwarded for identification. 
Of those samples, two were harmless agarics and the other a white 
agaric—Amanita vernus—one of the poisonous varieties of the Amanita. 
At the writer’s request. Dr. Shadle wrote the following report in answer 
to numerous queries ;******* 
The report of Dr. Shadle corroborates all former observations of the 
poisoning by Amanitine, in that the poison does not manifest itself until 
from eiglit to fifteen hours after ingestion and the peculiai- dusky hue of 
the skin as one of its marked .syrnploms. 
In relation to the latter. Mr. Palmer writes : The absorption of the 
poison from the Amanita may take place not only by ingestion, but by 
contact with the skin, as through the hollow palm of the hand or arm: 
by the lungs, as I have proven by personal experiments made upon my- 
