  Prof. Kobert writes of a number of cases of poisoning in the Baltic provinces of Russia by the mushroom Helvella esculenta Persoon, sometimes called the Lorchel. It should be here stated that the Helvella esculenta of Persoon is the Gyromitra esculenta of Fries. This mushroom is described as edible and placed in the edible lists by Dr. M. C. Cooke, Prof. Peck, and other distinguished mycologists, who have tested it and found it edible when perfectly fresh. The poisonous principle of this mushroom was isolated and analyzed by Prof. R. Boehm, of Russia, in 1885. It was by him designated as "helvellic acid," and found to be soluble in hot water. Profs. Eugene Bostroem and E. Ponfick, after giving some study to the effects of this mushroom poison, agreed in their report concerning it, which is to the effect that the quickly dried H. esculenta (Gyromitra esculenta) is not poisonous, and that the poisonous acid of the fresh ones may be extracted by means of hot water, so that while the decoction is poisonous the mushroom is not at all so, after the liquid is pressed out. Experiments with this mushroom were made by both authors on dogs, which ate them greedily, but without exception the dogs were very sick afterwards. The Prof. Kobert, commenting on the experiments made by Bostroem and Ponfick, states that he himself had been furnished yearly with fresh specimens of "H. esculenta" (G. esculenta) specially gathered for him at Dorpat, and after making various experiments with the freshly expressed juice he became convinced that the poisonous principle greatly varies, the juice sometimes operating as very poisonous, and sometimes as only slightly so. He states also that the proportion of poison in the mushroom varies with the weather, location, and age of the mushroom. The inhabitants of Russia do not eat this mushroom, but in Germany it is eaten dried or when perfectly fresh, after cooking, and after the first water in which it is boiled is removed. Helvellic acid is not found in Morchella esculenta (the true Morel), nor is it known to exist in any other species except G. esculenta. It has been stated that there is no antidote for helvellic poisoning after the symptoms have appeared. A specimen of Gyromitra esculenta was forwarded to me from Portland, Maine, by a member of a mycological club of that city, who stated that this mushroom was quite abundant in the early spring in the woods near Portland and that the plants were eaten by the members of the club, care being taken to use them only when perfectly fresh. Indigestion and nausea followed the eating of old specimens, but the general opinion was "favorable to the Gyromitra as an addition to the table." (See page 6, part 2, of this series.) Prof. Chas. H. Peck, of Albany, while placing this mushroom in his edible list as one which he had repeatedly tested, advises that it should be eaten only when perfectly fresh, as nausea and sickness had been known to result from the eating of specimens which had been kept twenty-four hours before cooking. I forwarded a number of drawings of the American species of G. esculenta, together with a dried specimen of the same received from Maine, to Prof. Kobert, who identified both drawings and specimen as the Gyromitra esculenta of Fries, synonymous with the Helvella esculenta of Persoon. Prof. Kobert also informs me that he finds the fresh G. esculenta perfectly harmless when freed of the water of the first boiling. He says: "My wife and I eat it very often, when in fresh condition, and after the first water in which it is boiled is poured off." The active poisonous principle of this mushroom is the helvellic acid, which is soluble in hot water. When the mushroom is gathered fresh and quickly dried it is then also innoxious. In this respect it differs from the species A. muscaria, in which the poisonous alkaloid muscarin is not destroyed in the drying, but remains unchanged for years in the dried mushroom. The fact that there have been seemingly well-authenticated cases of |
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