About a year ago a physician in Vineland, New Jersey, furnished the following in regard to his personal experience of the effects of mushroom poisoning: "My wife, daughter, and self selected, according to an article in the Encyclopedia Britannica, what we thought were a nice lot of mushrooms, cooked them in milk, and ate them for dinner with relish. In a few hours we were vomiting, laughing, and staggering about the house. We could not control ourselves from the elbows to the finger tips, nor our legs from the knee to the ends of our toes. In other words, we were drunk on mushrooms. The mushrooms grew within the shade of Norway spruce and other ornamental trees on the lawn in front of our house. They were pure white inside and out; smooth shiny tops that easily peeled off. The caps were about two or three inches in diameter, and had a stem of the same length. On the day before, my wife and a friend ate some of these mushrooms raw and experienced no bad effects. The next day at noon we ate them cooked in milk with a little butter, and they were very good. About two o'clock our food did not seem to digest well, and soon my daughter, sixteen years of age, vomited all her dinner. Then my wife began to feel the effects, and took hot water freely, sweet oil, currant wine, and at last an overdose of tartar-emetic. Of course, she was the sickest of all. I was cool and happy and amused at the situation, and drunk from my head down. I did not vomit, and my mushrooms remained with me for at least 48 hours. I took nothing but hot water and sweet oil. A friend of my daughter's of her own age partook of the mess and had not a single bad symptom."

A physician from West Grove, Pennsylvania, writes: "I determined to risk a test of the Amanita muscaria. Accordingly, two good-sized specimens were steamed in butter. I ate one, and another member of my family ate the other, feeling that the consequences could not be serious from so small an amount. About an hour after eating, a sensation of nausea and faintness was experienced in both cases, followed by nervous tingling, some cold perspiration and accelerated and weakened action of the heart. Considerable prostration ensued within two hours. Knowing that sulphate of atropin has proved the most successful remedy for the active principle of the Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, a small dose, one-sixtieth of a grain, was taken by each. Considerable relief was experienced within 30 minutes, and all unpleasant symptoms had disappeared within 6 hours, without repeating the medicine."

Another case, wherein the antagonism of atropin for muscarin was demonstrated, was brought to our notice during the month of September of the past year. An entire party of people were badly poisoned by eating mushrooms, and, although a doctor was called in very late, most of them were saved by the use of sulphate of atropin.

It would seem from the foregoing cases that the intensity and action of the mushroom poison must depend in some degree on the constitution of the individual, as well as on the quality and quantity of the mushrooms eaten. The first treatment should be to get rid of the poison immediately and by every possible means, so as to prevent or at least arrest the progress of inflammation of the alimentary canal, and at the same time to prevent the absorption of the poison. In a majority of cases the recovery of the victim depends solely upon the promptness with which vomiting is excited. Vertigo, convulsions, spasms, and other grave nervous symptoms, which ordinarily follow the cessation of the most important functions, yield, ordinarily, to the action of an emetic without the necessity of ulterior remedies, if taken in time, while the substance is yet in the stomach; when it has entered the lower bowels purgation is necessary. Sweet oil should always be taken in combination with castor oil, or such other purgatives as are used. Enemas of cassia, senna, and sulphate of magnesia have also been used with good effect.

The fatal poisoning of Count Achilles de Vecchj, in November, 1897, by eating the Amanita muscaria, is so fresh in the public recollection, and the details in regard to it were so widely published through the newspaper press, that it is unnecessary to take up space in recapitulating the circumstances.

The death of Chung Yu Ting, in 1894, was occasioned by eating mushrooms which he had collected in a patch of woods near Washington, D. C., and which I identified at the time as Amanita phalloides, sometimes called the "Death Cup." He had eaten very freely of this mushroom and died after great suffering, although ten hours had elapsed before the toxic effects began to show themselves.

Since it has been shown that vinegar and the solution of common salt have the power to dissolve the alkaloids of the poisonous mushrooms, it follows that the liquor thus formed must be extremely injurious. It should, therefore, be obvious that vinegar and salt should not be introduced into the stomach after poisonous mushrooms have been eaten. The result would only be to hasten death. Ether and volatile alkali are also attended with danger. A physician should in all cases be promptly called, and, if muscarin poisoning is suspected, hypodermic injections of the sulphate of atropin, the only chemical antidote known to be efficacious, should be administered, the dose being from ¹/₁₈₀ up to ¹/₃₅ of a grain. Small doses of atropin can also be taken internally, to accelerate heart action. To relieve the pains and irritation in the abdomen sweet oil and mucilaginous drinks should be given.

North America.

Berkeley, M. J. "Fungi of Arctic Expedition, 1875-'76." Linn. Journ., xvii. 1880.

—— "Decades of Fungi," viii-x, in Hook. Journ., vol. iv. London. 1845.

—— "Decades of Fungi," xii-xiv. "Ohio Fungi," Hook. Journ., vol. vi. London. 1847.

—— "Decades of Fungi," xxi-xxii. "North and South Carolina." Hook. Journ., vol. i. 1849.

Berkeley, M. J., and Curtis, M. A. "North American Fungi" in Grevillea, vols. i-iv. London. 1871-'75.

Bessey, C. E. The Erysiphei. (Monograph.) Michigan.

Curtis, M. A. "Contributions to the Mycology of North America," Silliman Journal. 8vo. 1848.

—— "Catalogue of the Plants of North Carolina." 8vo. Raleigh. 1867.

Cooke, M. C. "Fungi of Texas." Linn. Journ., vol. xvii.

—— and Ellis, J. B. "New Jersey Fungi," in Grevillea. 1878-'80.

Ellis, J. B. "Canadian Fungi." Journ. Mycol., vol. 1. Manhattan. 1885.

Farlow, W. G. List of Fungi found in the vicinity of Boston. Bulletin of the Bussey Inst., vol. 1.

Gibson, Hamilton Wm. Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms. Harper Bros., New York.

Harkness, H. W. Pacific Coast Fungi, i, iv. San Francisco. 1885-'87.

Peck, C. H. Reports of the New York Museum of Natural History. Albany. 1872-'97. Albany, N. Y.

Ravenel. "Fungi Carolinia," Fasc.: v. 90.

Schweinitz, L. de Synopsis fungorum in Amer. boreali media degentium. 4to. Philadelphia. 1831.

Taylor, Thomas. Mildew of the Native Grape Vine. Peronospora viticola.

—— Erysiphei of the European Grape Vine.

—— Fungoid Diseases of the Peach Tree.

—— Mildew of the Lilac. Illustrated. An. Report of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1871, pages 110 to 122, inclusive.

—— Black-knot on Plum and Cherry Trees. Illustrated.

—— Blight and Rot of the Potato, "Peronospora infestans." Illustrated.

—— Blight and Smut in Onions. Illustrated. An. Report of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1872, pages 175 to 198, inclusive.

—— Potato Blight and Rot. Pages 118 to 123 and 251-253.

—— New Fungus of the Hawthorn. Roestelia aurantiaca. Pages 431-433. Illustrated.

—— Rust of the Orange. Pages 588-594. An. Report of Dept. of Agriculture, 1873.

Taylor, Thomas. Fungoid Disease of the Cherry. Page 173.

—— Grape-vine Disease. Page 175.

—— Cranberry Scald and Rot. Page 171. Illustrated. An. Report of Dept. of Agriculture, 1874.

—— Fungoid Diseases of the Cranberry. Page 206.

—— Fungoid Diseases of the Plum and Cherry Trees. Pages 119 and 413. An. Report Dept. of Agriculture, 1877.

—— Food Product Reports, Mushrooms, Edible and Poisonous. Annual Reports of U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 1885-1895.

—— Student's Handbook of Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous.

Watt, D. A. P. Provisional Catalogue of Canadian Cryptogams.

Bulletins of the Boston, New York, and Philadelphia Mycological Societies. Published in Boston, Mass., New York, N. Y., and Philadelphia, Penn., respectively.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Toxicology of Mushrooms.

Boudier, Emile. Gazette des hop. Paris. 1846.

—— Mushrooms Toxicologically Considered. Paris. 1869.

T. Husemann und A. Husemann. "Handb. der Toxicologie." Berlin. 1862.

Letellier and Speneux. "Experiences nouvelles sur les Champignons vÉnenÉux etc." Paris. 1866.

McIlvaine, Chas. Article on Amanita poisonings, Therapeutic Mag. Philadelphia, 1893.

Schmiedeberg and Koppe. "Das Muscarin Das Giftige Alkaloid des Fliegenpilzes." Leipzig. Verlag von F. C. W. Vogel. 1869.

Kobert, Rudolph. "Sitzungsberichte der Naturforscher-Gesellschafft." Dorpat, Russia. 1891-'92.

—— Lehrbuch der Intoxication. Stuttgard, Germany.

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.

CORRECTION OF PLATES.

The spores as delineated on the plates represent a magnification of from 400 to 500 diameters.

To avoid confusion, corrections noted above were not made to the plates or their captions.

"Membranaceous," "membraneous" and "membranous" all appear multiple times; I left them as is. Similarly for "Hynesboro" and "Hynesbury," "sebaceus" and "sebÆceus," "subglobose" and "sub-globose," "center" and "centre," "network" and "net-work."

Both "Huseman" and "Husemann" appear; perhaps they refer to the same person, but I couldn't be sure, so I left them as is.

There is little consistency about when names are italicized or placed in quotes. Except where noted below, I left them as typeset in the original.

Changed "filamentose" to "filamentous" on page 7 of part 1: "filamentous network."

Changed "sub generas" to "subgenera" on page 9 of part 1: "of the subgenera."

Changed "PratelÆ" to "PratellÆ" on page 11 of part 1, in Dr. M. C. Cooke's subdivisions.

Changed "puffball" to "puff-ball" on page 13 of part 1: "and the puff-ball."

Changed "II" to "I" on page 17 of part 1 to match the illustrations: "illustrated in Plate I."

Changed "mycophogists" to "mycophagists" on page 18 of part 1: "with most mycophagists."

Changed "micaceous" to "micaceus" on page 19 of part 1: "Coprinus micaceus."

Changed "plain" to "plane" on page 20 of part 1: "then nearly plane."

Changed "parsely" to "parsley" on page 22 of part 1: "with parsley chopped."

Changed "channeled" to "channelled" on page 23 of part 1: "Canaliculate, channelled."

Changed "Channeled" to "Channelled" on page 23 of part 1: "Channelled, hollowed out like a gutter."

Changed "clustured" to "clustered" on page 24 of part 1: "little clustered grains."

Changed "charactertistics" to "characteristics" on page 3 of part 2: "the distinguishing characteristics."

Changed "mushroon" to "mushroom" on page 5 of part 2: "common field mushroom."

Changed "paraphesis" to "paraphyses" on page 7 of part 2: "spore sack and paraphyses."

Changed "Saac." to "Sacc." on page 8 of part 2: "Mitrula vitellina Sacc."

Changed "tetrasporus" to "tetrasporous" on page 9 of part 2: "being entirely tetrasporous."

Changed "agaricus" to "Agaricus" on page 16 of part 2: "Agaricus arvensis."

Changed "mid-western" to "midwestern" on page 17 of part 2: "and midwestern States."

The arithmetic doesn't work out right for the third house of the Pennsylvania grower on page 17 of part 2. Perhaps it produced 28,000 pounds rather than 2,800. However, I left it as it was.

Removed duplicate word "the" on page 20 of part 2: "add to the manure."

Changed "surfare" to "surface" on page 20 of part 2: "surface be too dry."

Changed "POLYPOROUS" to "POLYPORUS" on page 24 of part 2.

Changed "deletereous" to "deleterious" on page 3 of part 3: "classed as deleterious."

Changed "yellew" to "yellow" on page 4 of part 3: "never yellow."

Changed "flexuous" to "flexuose" on page 4 of part 3: "thin, flexuose."

The Analytic Table starting on Page 6 of part 3 was changed to use numeric codes to identify the branches in the tree rather than the special characters, for clarity and elimination of non-Latin-1 characters.

"MassÉe" appeared on pages 5, 10 and 20 of part 3; they were all changed to "Massee."

Changed "Psilosybe" to "Psilocybe" in the table on page 7 of part 3.

Changed "fibres" to "fibers" on page 8 of part 3: "with minute fibers."

Changed "Rhodosporhii" to "Rhodosporii" on page 9 of part 3: "section Rhodosporii."

"Pleurotos" appeared on pages 9 and 16 of part 3 and page 3 of part 5; they were all changed to "Pleurotus" for consistency.

Changed "epyphytal" to "epiphytal" on page 13 of part 3: "epiphytal, often stemless."

Changed "Mushroooms" to "Mushrooms" on page 14 of part 3: "Mushrooms with Bacon."

Changed "importatnt" to "important" on page 15 of part 3: "an important part."

Changed "Hymenomycetefs" to "Hymenomycetes" on page 16 of part 3: "the genera of Hymenomycetes."

Both "Gloeoporus" and "Gloeporus" appear. I left both spellings, since I couldn't determine the author's intention.

Changed "Basidyomycetes" to "Basidiomycetes" on page 18 of part 3: "Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes."

Changed "myceluim" to "mycelium" on page 18 of part 3: "directly on the mycelium."

Changed "Dacyromycetes" to "Dacryomycetes" on page 19 of part 3: "(1) Dacryomycetes."

Some text was dropped on page 19 of part 3. I inserted an ellipsis as a place-holder: "without asci, ... sporules or stylospores."

Moved semi-colon inside quote three times on page 20 of part 3, for grammatical consistency: 'or "rotting moulds;" the Cystopi, or "white rusts;" the SaprolegniaceÆ, or "fish moulds;".'

Changed "EntomothoraceÆ" to "EntomophthoraceÆ" on page 20 of part 3.

Changed "Uutersuch." to "Untersuch." on page 21 of part 3: "Bot. Untersuch."

Changed "Mongraphie" to "Monographie" on page 21 of part 3: "Monographie des SaprolegniÉes."

Changed "spois" to "spores" on page 23 of part 3, in the entry for tetraspore.

Changed "perethecia" to "perithecia" twice on page 23 of part 3: "enclosed in perithecia" and "fungi without perithecia."

Changed "Hyphomecetea" to "HyphomyceteÆ" on page 23 of part 3: "such as the HyphomyceteÆ."

Changed "rotton" to "rotten" on page 4 of part 4: "rotten wood or sticks."

Changed "Puff Ball" to "Puff-Ball" in caption to Plate G.

Changed "globuse" to "globose" on page 6 of part 4: "sometimes nearly globose."

Changed "fetid" to "foetid" on page 9 of part 4, for consistency: "their foetid odor." Also in the caption to Plate H.

Changed "disc" to "disk" on page 9 of part 4: "the disk is stellate."

Changed "Phalloideae" to "PhalloideÆ" in the caption to Plate H.

Changed "LycoperadaceÆ" to "LycoperdaceÆ" on page 12 of part 4: "III.—LycoperdaceÆ."

Italicized "Lepiota" on page 13 of part 4, for consistency: "Subgenus Lepiota Fries."

Changed "cepaestipes" to "cepÆstipes" in the caption to Plate XI½: "Agaricus (Lepiota) cepÆstipes."

Changed "coerulescems" to "cÆrulescens" in the caption to Plate XII.

Removed italics from "Scop." on page 23 of part 4: "Clitocybe laccata Scop."

Changed "satanus" to "Satanus" on page 24 of part 4: "Boletus Satanus Lenz."

Changed "Beef-steak" to "Beefsteak" on page 24 of part 4: "Beefsteak Fungus."

One of the plates was labeled with script letter I, to differentiate it from Roman numeral I. I changed script letter I to upper case letter J.

Changed "Caesareus" and "Caesarea" to "CÆsareus" and "CÆsarea", respectively, in the caption to Plate XIV: "Ag. (Amanita) CÆsareus, Scop. (Amanita CÆsarea)."

Removed italics from "Roze" on page 9 of part 5, twice: "Subgenus Amanitopsis Roze", "Amanitopsis vaginata Roze."

Changed "mappÁ" to "mappa" in caption to Plate XV: "Ag. (Amanita) mappa Batsch."

The footnote on page 12 of part 5 had no anchor in the text. I attached it where I thought it made the most sense.

Changed "Washington, D. D." to "Washington, D. C." on page 21 of part 5.

Removed italics from "Linn." on page 22 of part 5: "Linn. Journ."

Italicized "Grevillea" on page 22 of part 5: '"North American Fungi" in Grevillea.'

Added closing quote on page 23 of part 5 to Bibliography entry for Letellier.

Changed "Psaliota" to "Psalliota" on page 23 of part 5: "Agaricus (Psalliota) campester."

Plate XVI is omitted from the index to illustrations; since I wasn't sure how the author would have wanted to describe it, I left it out.