THE EXILE OF SIBERIA.
“Vilibus ancipites fungi ponentur amicis;
Boletus domino.”——JUVENAL.
The rage for scampering half over the world in search of the
picturesque has scarcely got far enough to tempt any, except a stray
traveller or two, into the chilly regions of Siberia and Kamtschatka,
and in these exceptional cases, perhaps, more from force than choice.
These are regions, therefore, concerning which our information is
remarkably limited. It is true that Captain Cochrane informs us that
he married a wife from Kamtschatka—a virtuous maiden, who knew more of
that region, perhaps, than he or she cared to tell; for the one tells
us very little, and the other nothing, of yon strange land, with an
almost unpronounceable name. We are told, moreover, that the capital
is called by the names of St. Peter and St. Paul. Fearing lest one
patron saint should not be sufficient to immortalize the metropolis
of all the Kamtschatkas, the founders and inhabitants have wisely
adopted two. This city also is stated to contain forty-two dwellings,
besides fifteen edifices belonging to the government, an old church,
and the foundation of a new one. The winters are declared to be mild,
compared with those of Siberia; but even these are not very inviting,
as the snow lies on the ground seven or eight months, and the soil,
at the depth of twenty-four to thirty inches, being frozen at all
seasons. Potatoes never ripen, cabbages never come to a head, and
peas only flower. But the gallant captain adds: “I am certainly the
first Englishman that ever married a Kamtschatdale, and my wife is
undoubtedly the first native of that peninsula that ever visited happy
Britain.”
In such a land, there is little hope of cultivating poppy, tobacco,
betel, coca, hemp, or thorn-apple; and the poor native would have been
compelled to have glided into his grave without a glimpse of Paradise
beforehand, if, on the one hand, the kindly Russian pedlar had not
found a way to smuggle a little bad spirits into the country, to the
great annoyance of all quietly-disposed persons, or, on the other,
nature had not promptly supplied an indigenous narcotic, in the form of
an unpretending-looking fungus or toadstool, to stimulate the dormant
energies of the dwellers in this region of ice and snow.
That some kinds of mushrooms are poisonous is a truth of which every
farm labourer seems aware. But that some of those which have been
reputed poisonous are inert, is beyond their philosophy, and only
receives at present the sanction of some of the more scientific, who
have directed their studies thitherward. The fly agaric is one of those
justly-reputed poisonous species, occasionally found in this country,
but which grows plentifully in Kamtschatka and Siberia. A recent author
of an account of Russia states, “that mushrooms virulently poisonous
in one country are eaten with safety in another, is well known in
other cases, as, for instance, in that of the fly mushroom (_Amanita
muscaria_), which is common in England, and always poisonous there,
while in Kamtschatka it is used as a frequent article of food.” Then
he inquires into the reasons wherefore this should be the case:——“It
is not enough to say that difference of soil and climate explain the
mystery; for though we know that culture changes the properties of
plants, converting what is poisonous in the wild state into a wholesome
esculent when raised in the garden—as in the case of the common celery,
for example—yet throughout the whole of the vegetable kingdom we find
almost no other instance of a plant which is poisonous in one country
becoming wholesome, without culture, when transplanted to another, and
left entirely to itself, and in both placed in apparently the same
circumstances as to soil, &c. After all, a great part of the secret may
lie, not in the plant, but in the mode of preparing it for the table.
So far as we can judge, the Russian cook, on first cutting up these
spoils of the forest, makes a much more copious use of salt than is
done with us; and the efficacy of this agent in deadening the poisonous
quality, is sufficiently proved by the melancholy case recorded in
medical treatises, of a French officer and his wife, both of whom died
in thirty-two hours after eating certain mushrooms, while the person
who supplied them, and his whole family, made a hearty and wholesome
meal from the same gathering.” In this case, it appears that while
the former took them without addition, the latter first salted them
strongly, and then squeezed them well before using them. M. Roques says
distinctly that this plant has not its poisonous properties modified
by any climate. The Czar Alexis lost his life by eating this mushroom.
The details of its effects upon the Kamtschatkans by Krascheminikow,
in his natural history of that country are explicit, respecting the
delirious intoxication induced by it, Gmelin and Pallas also equally
certifying its intoxicating powers. Roques reports seven different sets
of observations respecting its deleterious effects on man.
Unless we accept some such explanation of the phenomena as this, how
can we reconcile the fact of their being eaten by the Russians without
injury, whilst, on the authority of Dr. Christison, we have such a
fatal case as the following, from eating the same kind of fungus, the
growth of the same country and climate. Several French soldiers in
Russia ate a large quantity of _Amanita muscaria_, some were not taken
ill for six hours and upwards. Four of them who were very powerful men
thought themselves safe, because, while their companions were already
suffering, they themselves felt perfectly well and refused to take
emetics. In the evening they began to complain of anxiety, a sense of
suffocation, frequent fainting, burning thirst, and violent gripes. The
pulse became small and irregular, and the body bedewed with cold sweat,
the lineaments of the countenance were singularly changed, the nose and
lips acquiring a violet tint, they trembled much, the belly swelled,
and a profuse diarrhœa followed. The extremities soon became livid and
cold, and the pain of the abdomen intense, delirium ensued, and all the
four died. Two of the others suffered coma for twenty-four hours.
This proves that the mushroom in question is possessed of undoubtedly
poisonous properties, which are fatal in their effects, unless
counteracted or dispelled by the method of preparing them for the
table. That this method is known to the Russians and to some other
nations, and is believed to consist in well saturating the fungi with
salt before cooking them. The Muscovite seems to have no greater dread
of ill effects from the fly agaric than has the Brazilian from his
cassava or mandioca flour, which is prepared from the equally poisonous
root of the mandioca plant, the deleterious qualities of which are
destroyed by the heat used in its preparation. Dr. Pouchet of Rouen
seems to have clearly proved that the poisonous property of the fly
agaric and _a venenata_ may be entirely removed by boiling them in
water. A quart of water in which five plants had been boiled for
fifteen minutes, killed a dog in eight hours; and, again, another in a
day; but the boiled fungi themselves had no effect at all on two other
dogs; and a third which had been fed for two months on little else than
boiled amanitas, not only sustained no harm, but actually got fat on
the fare.[37] Pouchet is inclined to think that the whole poisonous
plants of the family are similarly circumstanced.
The most singular circumstance connected with the history of this
fungus, is the place it occupies as a substitute for those narcotics
known in other parts of the world, and which an ungenial northern
climate fails to produce. What the coca is to the Bolivian, and opium
to the Chinese—the areca to the Malay, and haschisch to the African—the
tobacco to the inhabitants of Europe and America, and the thorn-apple
to those of the Andes—is the fly agaric to the natives of Siberia and
Kamtschatka. Why it has been called by this name has arisen from its
use as a fly poison. Never having seen those dipterous insects while
under its influence, we cannot detail the symptoms it produces.
This poisonous fungus has some resemblance to the one generally eaten
in this country, yet there are also striking points of difference. As,
for instance, the gills are white instead of pinkish red, inclining to
brown, and the cap or pileus, which is rather flat, is generally of a
livid red colour, sprinkled with angular lighter coloured worts. These
are distinctions broad enough to prevent any one having the use of his
eyes, and who has ever seen the edible mushroom being deceived into the
belief that the fungus thus briefly described is identical with the
delicacy of our English tables.
These fungi are collected by those who indulge in them narcotically,
during the hot, or rather summer months, and afterwards hung up to
dry in the open air. Or they may be left to ripen and dry in the
ground, and are afterwards collected. When left standing until they
are dried, they are said to possess more powerful narcotic properties
than when dried artificially. The juice of the whortleberry in which
this substance has been steeped, acquires thereby the intoxicating
properties of strong wine.
The method of using this singular substance is to roll it up in the
form of a bolus and swallow it without any mastication, as one would
swallow a large pill. It is swallowed thus on principle, not that
its flavour would be unpleasant, as compound colocynth might be when
masticated, but because it is stated to agree ill with the stomach when
that operation is performed. Nature is jealous of her rights, and it
would appear from experience, that the gastronomic regions expect to
receive all other supplies well triturated, except these—amanita and
pill colocynth—which are both expected equally alike to arrive at the
regions below without mutilation.
A day’s intoxication may thus be procured at the expense of one good
sized bolus, compounded of one large or two small toadstools; and
this intoxication is affirmed to be, not only cheap, which is a
consideration, but also remarkably pleasant. It commences an hour or so
after the bolus has been swallowed.
The effects which this singular narcotic produces are, some of them,
similar to that produced by intoxicating liquors; others resemble the
effects of haschisch. At first, it generally produces cheerfulness,
afterwards giddiness and drunkenness, ending occasionally in the entire
loss of consciousness. The natural inclinations of the individual
become stimulated. The dancer executes a _pas d’extravagance_, the
musical indulge in a song, the chatterer divulges all his secrets,
the oratorical delivers himself of a philippic, and the mimic
indulges in caricature. Erroneous impressions of size and distance
are common occurrences, equally with the swallower of amanita and
hemp. The experiences of M. Moreau with haschisch are repeated with
the fungus-eaters of Siberia; a straw lying in the road becomes a
formidable object, to overcome which, a leap is taken sufficient to
clear a barrel of ale, or the prostrate trunk of a British oak.
But this is not the only extraordinary circumstance connected
therewith. There is the property imparted to the fluid excretions, of
rendering it intoxicating, which property it retains for a considerable
time. A man having been intoxicated on one day, and slept himself sober
by the next, will, by drinking this liquor, to the extent of about a
cupfull, become as intoxicated thereby as he was before. Confirmed
drunkards in Siberia preserve their excretionary fluid as a precious
liquor, to be used in case a scarcity of the fungus should occur. This
intoxicating property may be again communicated to every person who
partakes of the disgusting draught, and thus, also, with the third,
and fourth, and even the fifth distillation. By this means, with a
few boluses to commence with, a party may shut themselves in their
room, and indulge in a week’s debauch at a very economical rate. This
species of “sucking the monkey” is one that Mungo never contemplated.
Persons who are fond of getting liquor at the expense of others take
every opportunity of “sucking the monkey,” which process has been
thus explained. It consists in boring a hole with a gimlet in a keg
or barrel, and putting a straw therein, to suck out any quantity, at
any given time. Persons who are accustomed to receive real Devonshire
cider, or genuine Wiltshire ale, or the pure Geneva, in London,
experience the liberties those take who “suck the monkey,” by either
liberally diminishing the quantity, or diluting it with water on the
road, so as to make the quantity what the quality should be. It is
said that the origin of the term “sucking the monkey” is derived from
the prolific invention of a black, who, in order to find an excuse
to the captain for his being caught lying with a favourite monkey so
often near the rum puncheons on board, from which he daily drank,
said—“Massa, you ask what Mungo do here?—do here, massa? You say monkey
hab de milk ob human kindness, massa. Mungo like dat milk, massa, and
Mungo suck de monkey, massa. Dat’s all.”
Chemical investigations have not yet been directed into the channel
leading towards the elucidation of the mysteries of these poisonous
fungi, and hitherto we know of no experiments having been made with a
view to ascertain whether any of our indigenous fungi, other than the
one already referred to, can be used in the same way, and with the same
results, as we have described. Doubtless such experiments would be
successful, so far as realizing the results, since one of the effects
produced by eating poisonous fungi is narcotic in its character. M.
Letellier found in certain of these fungi a chemical principle which is
fixed, and resists drying, and which he calls Amanitine. Its effects
on animals appear to resemble considerably those of opium.[38] Dr.
Christison states that “the symptoms produced by them in man are
endless in variety, and fully substantiate the propriety of arranging
them in the class of narcotico-acrid poisons. Sometimes they produce
narcotic symptoms alone, sometimes only symptoms of irritation, but
much more commonly, both together.” A person gathered in Hyde Park a
considerable number of mushrooms; which he mistook for the species
commonly eaten, stewed them, and proceeded to eat them; but before
ending his repast, and not more than ten minutes after he began it,
he was suddenly attacked with dimness of vision, giddiness, debility,
trembling, and loss of recollection. In a short time he recovered so
far as to be able to go in search of assistance. But he had hardly
walked 250 yards when his memory again failed him, and he lost his way.
His countenance expressed anxiety, he reeled about, and could hardly
articulate. He soon became so drowsy, that he could be kept awake only
by constant dragging. Vomiting was produced; the drowsiness gradually
went off, and next day he complained merely of languor and weakness.
The smoke of the common puff-ball when burnt, has been used to
stupify bees when their hive was about to be robbed; and similar
narcotic effects have been observed in other animals when subjected
to its fumes. The action bears a resemblance to that of chloroform by
producing insensibility to pain. If future generations do not deem
it desirable to indulge in a narcotic of this kind for the purpose of
producing pleasurable sensations, or to smother the carking cares of
life, yet they may learn more than we at present know of the peculiar
characteristics which distinguish this from all the others of the
“Seven Sisters of Sleep.”
Night draws on apace; let us gather together all the straggling members
of the family, sweep up the crumbs, call in the cat, bar the door, wind
up the clock, and go to bed—
“To sleep, perchance to dream.”