FUNGI AS FOOD 
35 
Berkeley remarked (i860) that the “Jew’s-ear and the 
false truffle are still sold in Covent Garden Market in con¬ 
sequence of some supposed healing properties ; but they 
belong to the times of the ancient herbalists, when the 
doctrine of signatures was prevalent, and are rejected as 
useless by all respectable practitioners.” The Jew’s-ear 
was formerly used as a remedy for dropsy. It is an esteemed 
esculent in some countries. 
Much literature in praise of edible fungi has been, and is 
being, published; but that fungi can never take the place 
of meat, nor even claim high rank in our bill of fare, is 
evident from the experiments of Mr. L. B. Mendel in the 
Physiological Chemistry Laboratory, Yale University. He 
has shown that the proportion of proteid matter (the 
material supplied by meat) is smaller than is usually sup¬ 
posed ; moreover—and this is an extremely important point 
—a large propoition of it resists the action of the digestive 
juices. We must also remember that the proportion of 
water is anything between 70 and 90 per cent.; therefore a 
fungus contains about as much nutritive material as a turnip 
(the least nutritious of all our vegetables), and is much more 
indigestible. 
Six species that have been specially recommended for 
their esculent qualities are depicted on Plate XV. Full 
details concerning the cooking of these and many other 
species will be found in Dr. M. C. Cooke’s “ British Edible 
Fungi,” the standard work on the subject (see Bibliography, 
P- 45 )- 
Before leaving this subject I feel it necessary to warn 
would-be experimentalists that a deadly meal may be stew¬ 
ing in the pot unless every possible care has been taken in 
discrimination. Dr. M. C. Cooke observes that there is no 
general rule by which good fungi can be distinguished from 
poisonous ones. “ The only safeguard is to become ac¬ 
quainted, by means of well-defined features, with some of 
3—2 
