Yours truly, J. E. SHADLE.
The interval between the ingestion and the symptoms is, therefore, a
most important aid in the diagnosis of a case of mushroom poisoning;
and in the event of an Amanita, heretofore absolutely fatal, it is
presumably under the control of medical science, now that the deadly
toxic principle has at last found its enemy in the neutralizing
properties of the equally deadly atropine.
It would seem, moreover, from the severe personal experience of Mr.
Julius A. Palmer, that the poison of the Amanita is quite capable of
mischief without being taken into the digestive organs. So volatile is
this dangerous alkaloid that it may produce violent effects upon the
system either through its odor alone, or by simple contact with the
skin and consequent absorption.
Mr. Palmer, in his before-mentioned article in the _Moniteur
Scientifique_, Paris, relates the following experiences:
[Sidenote: =Poisons by contact and odor=]
"Once while perspiring from a long walk I undertook to bring in a large
bunch of the Amanita for an artist. Seated in a close car, holding
them in my warm hand, although protected by a paper wrapper, a fearful
nausea overcame me. The toadstool was not at first suspected, yet I had
all the symptoms of a sea-sick person, and was only relieved by a wide
distance between myself and the exciting cause.
"While writing this article," he continues, "a friend sent me two very
elegant specimens of the Amanita tribe. They were in a confined box. On
opening it I smelled of them a few times, and allowed the box to lie
near my desk while I wrote to a medical gentleman anxious to procure
such for chemical experiment. Having sent them away the matter was
dismissed from my mind for three hours after, when, by an attack of
vomiting and oppression at the stomach, they were enforced upon my
attention. The whites of my eyes became livid, and even until noon the
day following the leaden color of my face was noticed by more than one
person."
[Sidenote: =A wide berth to Amanita=]
The moral of this story is that the less the reader has to do with
Amanita fungi the better. Let them have a wide berth, or at most an
annihilating kick, lest by their alluring beauty they tempt the next
unwary traveller who shall encounter them.
But you desire a specimen "to show a friend," or "to make a photograph
of, or a sketch," perhaps. In such case it were well to consider
further the experiences of Mr. Palmer, which will show the wisdom of
keeping your gustatorial and artistic mycology in separate expeditions,
or at least of providing your poison-exhaling Amanita specimen with a
cage by itself. In the same article he continues:
[Sidenote: =Mushrooms inoculated by contact=]
"Mushrooms make the same use of the atmosphere as men, even their
exhalations are accordingly vitiated with their properties. Those not
deadly thus attack humanity--namely, by absorption of their essential
elements by the whole system. They also _inoculate each other_ with or
without contact, so that _if edible and noxious toadstools are gathered
together the former will absorb the properties of the latter_."
In proof of this assertion he instances a personal experience as
follows: "About four years ago a number of poisonous mushrooms (not
Amanitæ, but of a totally different family) were sent me with edible
fungus. The two varieties had lain twelve hours in the same box.
The noxious ones were rejected, and the esculent washed and eaten.
In a moment my appetite was gone; violent perspiration, vertigo, and
trembling were the next symptoms; then chills, nausea, purging, and
tenesmus, all within thirty minutes. Now the substance could not have
reached the intestines. The virus absorbed from the noxious fungus
permeated the whole system through eating the harmless ones; unmixed
with other food it acted upon the muscles through an empty stomach;
once spent, the ailment passed off," etc.
[Sidenote: =Poison extracted by vinegar=]
From these and other experiences he draws the following conclusions:
The poisonous principle of a fungus being absorbed by a harmless
element, if the latter be eaten the venom acts more quickly. In
reinforcement of this he states that "if the Amanita be cut in sections
and laid in vinegar the fungus may be eaten without danger to life; but
on a very small dose of the vinegar, death will follow more speedily
than if the whole toadstool be eaten." Further interesting matter upon
this topic is contained in the article from which I quote, and to which
the reader is referred in his volume included in my bibliographical
list. The work also contains numerous other collected articles of Mr.
Palmer's upon this subject of fungi, to which he has devoted so much
attention, and with which his name has become so popularly identified
in America.
[Sidenote: =Effect of salt and heat=]
The allusion to vinegar as an absorbent of the poison suggests the
prevalent habitual use of salt as a safeguard by many in the employment
of the fungus as food, as both of these ingredients play a prominent
part in a fungus cuisine. It is averred by some writers that one of the
most noxious of Amanitæ--the Fly-agaric--is eaten in some countries,
notably Russia, without unpleasant results, while it is confidently
asserted to be harmless after, as it were, having its venom drawn by
a soaking in brine previous to cooking. Boiling--both in the possible
neutralizing of the poison through heat, and in the withdrawal of the
same in the solution--would also be contributive to safety in such
cases, provided the tainted liquid were not retained as in a stew or
soup.
[Sidenote: =Epicurean perversity=]
On this topic it is interesting to note the epicurean perversity of a
certain French author, who, in the face of the already overwhelming
abundance of nature's esculent species of fungi, must needs include
all the deadly Amanitæ as well, though he gives a recipe by which the
poison is extracted by the copious aid of salt, vinegar, boiling water,
and drawing. This process, on general principles, might invite humorous
speculation as to the appetizing qualities of the residual morsel
thus acquired, or as to the advisability of deliberately selecting a
poisonous substance for the desideratum of the washed-out, corned,
spiced, nondescript remnant which survives the process of extraction,
not only of its noxious properties, but of even what nutriment it might
possibly contain.
[Sidenote: =Mushrooms à la mode=]
Fancy a beefsteak similarly "prepared," all its nourishing ingredients
extracted and thrown away; its exhausted remnant of muscular fibre now
the mere absorbent vehicle for vinegar, salt, lemon-juice, butter,
nutmeg, garlic, spice, cloves, and other seeming indispensables to the
preparation of the Champignon _à la mode_!
The verdict of the extreme fungus epicure upon the delectable flavor
of this or that mushroom must indeed be taken _cum grano salis_, the
customary culinary treatment, or maltreatment, of these delicately
flavored fruits having for its apparent object the elimination as far
as possible of any suggestion of the true flavor of the fungus. I
fancy that even the caustic, rebellious root of the Indian-turnip or
the skunk-cabbage thus tamed and subdued in a smothering emollient of
spiced gravy or ragoût might negatively serve a purpose as more or less
indigestible pabulum.
[Sidenote: =Enough without Amanita=]
While, as already mentioned, a few of this genus Amanita are edible,
it is well in concluding our chapter to emphasize the caution of an
earlier page as to the absolute exclusion of the entire genus from
the bill of fare of the amateur mycophagist. There is an abundance of
wholesome, delicious fungi at our doors without them.
Many species of Amanita are to be found more or less frequently in
company with the esculent varieties recommended in the chapters
following. Among these the two extremes of variation from the typical
form are seen in the _A. muscarius_ in its permanent retention of the
volva scales and the obscurity of its cup, and in the _A. phalloides_,
herewith pictured about half natural size, with the frequent _entire
absence_ of these remnant scales, which wither and fall off, leaving
the yellowish or greenish cap perfectly smooth.
It is to the _volva_ or _cup_, then, that we must turn for the one
fixed permanent character by which this genus is to be identified.
[Illustration: AMANITA PHALLOIDES]
[Illustration: Agaricini or Gill-bearing Fungi]
[Illustration: Agarics]
Our introductory description of the Amanita presents the most
perfect botanical type of a large division of the fungus tribe, the
_Agaricaceæ_, or gill-bearing mushrooms, one of the two great orders of
fungi which include the large majority of edible species.
A brief consideration of the general classification of fungi will not
be out of place at the head of this chapter.