284 
M US HROO M. 
its truth. The writer of this article has feen one of the 
mufti rooms, and one of the ftones continues in its dif- 
placed ftate.” And in the following month another 
correfpondent, figning his name, writes as follows : “ In 
confirmation of the wonderful power of the growing 
muftiroom, mentioned in your laft, I beg leave to ftate 
that, three years ago, mufiirooms forced themfelves 
through a very hard gravel-walk in my garden, which any 
one would have thought quite impervious to any foft 
fubftance. The gravel, indeed, w»as at that time fo hard, 
that a pick-axe, or fome fuch inftrument, would have 
been necefl'ary to make an impreflion upon it; and yet the 
mufiirooms raifed it, and loofened the ftones and pebbles 
around it, as if it had been done by fome mechanical 
force. The muflirooms appeared everyday for a week or 
two ; they were not of a large fize, but fit for ufe ; and 
furniflied a good addition to the fummer-evening repaft.” 
This laft inftance may be perhaps accounted for with lefs 
difficulty; but the former, which appears to be well au¬ 
thenticated, certainly deferves the coniideration of philo- 
fophers and naturalifts. Monthly Mag. Sept, and Oft. 1817. 
The ancients took great pains to diftinguifli the feveral 
kinds of muflirooms, that the w'orld might know the 
hurtful from the fafe. The boletus mentioned by Juvenal, 
on account of the death.of the emperor Claudius, is fuffi- 
ciently defcribed by Pliny. Clufius, among the moderns, 
has defcribed a vaft number of different fpecies, every¬ 
where diftinguifliing the efculent and w'holefome from the 
poifonous or pernicious kinds. The feveral authors who 
have treated of them lince the time of Clufius, have all 
mentioned the effefts of fome or other of the poifonous 
kinds ; and there are numerous inftances of the mifchief 
done by them at one time or other. Some have been 
willing to afcribe this mifchief to animalcules inhabiting 
the plant; but this feems erroneous, and particularly 
from the following inftance: We have one kind of mufli- 
room growing in England, called the white acrid fungus: 
this is fo extremely {harp, that it ftimulates the tongue, 
as if it had been touched with fpirit of nitre; and Tourne- 
fort obferves, that, if rubbed on blue paper, it turns it red 
in the fame manner as that liquor or any other of the 
violent acid fpirits wmuld : this cauftic quality remains in 
the plant even after drying ; and it is very evident, that 
we need look no farther than this for the origin of the 
poifonous quality in this fpecies. There is another kind 
which is oblerved to kill the very flies as they fettle upon 
it. It is not probable that fuch plants as thefe fliould be 
inhabited by any kind of animalcules, nor is it necefl'ary 
to have recourfe to fuch caufes of the mifchief which en- 
fues from the eating them, wdien their own juices feem 
fo very able to have occalioned it. Phil. TranJ'. N° 473. 
Mr. Miller fays, that the true eatable muftiroom is dif- 
tinguilhed from the poifonous and unpleafant kinds by 
thefe marks. When young, it appears of a roundifli 
form, like a button, the ftalk as well as the button being 
white, and the flefliy part very white, when broken, the 
gills within being livid. As they grow larger, they ex¬ 
pand their heads by degrees into a flat form, and the gills 
underneath are at firft of a pale afli-colour; but, as they 
ftand long, become biackifli. 
A farmer’s wife and two children were poifoned, in a 
village in France, (Mangienne, in the diftrift of Mont- 
medi,) in the month of Auguft laft, (1817.) by eating 
poilonous fungi. 
The following teft, whereby to try the quality of mufii¬ 
rooms, is given in the Encyclopaedia Britannica:—Take 
an onion, ft rip the outer flein, and boil it with your mufli¬ 
rooms : if the onion become blue or black, there are cer¬ 
tainly dangerous ones amongft them ; if it remain white, 
they are good. 
In the Annales de Cliimie for 1812, we read, that the 
name of fungin has been given by Monf. Braconnet to 
the flefliy part of muflirooms, wdiicli he conceives to be a 
peculiar vegetable principle; and which, according to 
him, poffeffes the following properties: It may be ob¬ 
tained pure by boiling it in a-weak alkaline folution. In 
that ftate it is whitilh, foft, infipid, po defies little elafti- 
city, and readily yields to the teeth. It would appear that 
fungin thus purified may be nfed as an article of food, from 
what nmjhroom foever it has been obtained. The poilonous 
qualities of muflirooms, it would feem, refide in the juices, 
not in the fungin. This fubftance, when dried, burns 
with confiderable fplendour, emitting an odour fimilarto 
tfiat of burning bread, and leaving behind it a white afti. 
Dried fungin, when diftilled in a retort, yields about 
half its weight of a liquid produft, confifting partly of a 
brown oil, and partly of water, holding a good deal of 
ammonia in folution. It yields no acid, which diftin- 
guilhes it very much from w r ood. The charcoal remain¬ 
ing in the retort amounts to rather more than one-fourth 
of the dry fungin fubjefted to diftillation. This char¬ 
coal exhibited traces of fulphureted hydrogen, and con¬ 
tained fand, phofphat of lime, and traces of carbonat of 
lime, phofphat of lime, and of alumina. Fungin does 
not difl'olve in alkaline folutions, in which refpeft it dif¬ 
fers eflentially from lignin, which is readily difl’olved by a 
weak alkali; but, if fungin be boiled in a very ftrong al¬ 
kaline lye, it is partly diflblved, and a faponaceous pro¬ 
duft obtained. Ammonia difl'olves a fmall portion of 
fungin, and lets it fall again in white flocks when expofed 
to the air. Weak fulphuric acid has no aftion on fungin ; 
but, when concentrated, this acid chars it, and at the 
fame. time fulphureous acid and vinegar are formed. 
Muriatic acid difl'olves it very flowly, and converts it into 
a gelatinous matter. It is thrown down in flocks by the 
addition of potafti to the acid. Chlorine, palled over dry 
fungin fufpended in water, converts it into a yellow mat¬ 
ter, having at firft an acrid tafte, which it gradually lofes 
by expofure to the air. When digefted in diluted nitric 
acrid, azotic gas is difengaged. Heated with concen¬ 
trated nitric acid, it fwells, and eft'ervefces at firft vio¬ 
lently, but the aftion foon fubfides. When the acid is 
driven off, there remains a liquor, containing oxalate of 
lime, fome pruffic acid, and two fatty matters, the moft 
abundant fimilar to tallow, the other to wax. By eva¬ 
porating the liquid, a confiderable quantity of oxalic acid 
in cryftals was obtained. The mother-water ftill con¬ 
tained oxalic acid, and a portion of the bitter principle 
from indigo. When fungin is fteeped in an infufion of 
nutgalls, it imbibes a confiderable portion of the tannin, 
and acquires a fawn-colour. When left to purify fponta- 
neoufly in water, it emitted at firft the odour of putrefying 
gluten, then that of putrid meat. Neither acid nor am¬ 
monia was found in the water; but it contained a por¬ 
tion of mucilage, which gave it vifcofity, and the pro¬ 
perty of precipitating with acetat of lead. The fungin 
itfelf afl'umed the afpeft of gluten, without however pof- 
fefling its properties. 
MUSHROOM-STONE, f. A kind of foffil.—Fifteen 
mujhroom-ftones of the fame lhape. Woodward. 
MU'SIC, f. \mujique, Fr. from pvo-iy.vj, Gr.] The fci- 
ence of harmonical founds : 
The man that hath no mafic in himfelf, 
Nor is not mov’d with co-ncord of fweet founds, 
Is fit for treafons. ShakeJpeare's Merchant of Venice. 
Inftrumentai or vocal harmony : 
When fhe fpake, 
Sweet words, like dropping honey, flie did flied; 
And ’twixt the pearls and rubies foftly brake 
A lilverfound, that heaven \ymvficli feem-’d to make. Spcnf. 
Such muficli, as ’tis laid. 
Before was never made, 
But when of old the fons of morning fung. Milton. 
By mujich minds an equal temper know. 
Nor fwell too high, nor fink too low ; 
Warriours flie fires with animated founds. 
Pours balm into the bleeding lover’s wounds. Pope. 
Entertainments of inftrumentai harmony.—What 
and dancing, and diveriions, are to many in the world, 
that prayers, and devotions, and pfalms, are to you. Law. 
HISTORY 
