Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-08-24
(Communicsted)
Poisonous Mushrooms.

Mr.. EDITOR There have been sew,
eral cases of sickness, and one death
in this vicinity, lately, caused by
eating poisonous mushrooms and il
is for the Information Of the public
and, possibly, to preventsuch another
lamentable occurrence as happened in
the death of the young and beautiful
Alfaretta Clayton, that | ask you to
publish this article.
The mushroom is a cryptogamic
plant, or fungus, growing in rich,
moist places, springing up in a single
night, and is most abundant in a
rainy season. Some Of them are
largely consumed as feed, and by
some people are considered luxury J,
others are deleterious, and capable,
when eaton, of producing poisonous
effects, there being numerous cases
on record Of death caused by eating
poisonous mushroom, or toadstool.
1t therefore becomes highly impor-
tant for those who use them to be
able to distinguish those which are
wholesome from the poisonous. The
following rules, which are perhaps as
good any that can be found, are
given by a French author:
"Those should be rejected which
have q narcotic or fetid odor, or an
acrid, bitter taste, which occasions a
sense of construction in the throat
when swallowed those which are
very soft, liquefying, changing color,
and that grow in very moist places
and upon putrefying substances.
Even mushrooms which are usually
edible, may prove poisonous if col
lected too late or in places which are
too moist"
In some countries they are cults
waited, and form the chief article Of
food butIhere, where wholesome and
nutritious food can be obtained in
abundance, it is safer, considering
the risk that attends their use, to let
them entirely alone; and parents
should especially impress upon the
minds Of their children the fact of
their poisonous properties.
The symptoms produced by the
poisonous mushroom, are anxiety,
dizziness, nausea, faintness, vomiting,
and if they are not rejected from the
stomach, sleepiness, stupor, weak and
irregular pulse, cold hands and feet,
blueness of the skin, and death in
thirty-six or forty-eight hours.
When vomiting and purging occur
early and freely, life is sometimes
saved. Sometimes black and bloody
discharges take place from the bow
els. Occasionally some pain is ex-
perienced in the abdominal organs.
In the case mentioned, there was
much soreness and pain over the re-
gion of the stomach and liver, indi.
eating Inflammation Of those organs
There is no known antidote to the
poison of the mushroom. The proper
treatment would be to evacuate the
alimentary canal as soon as possible,
assisting the medicines with demul-
cent drinks. But the symptoms
frequently do notmanifest themselves
for sometime after the poison is taken
and is absorbed into the system then
the emetic comes too late to be of
use, and our only reliance is placed
upon tonics and stimulants, with
opium to relieve pain, with the hope
that not so much of the Nateries M0r-
b. has entered the system but that
n allure will come to the rescue, and
carry the patient through the crisis !;
but if nature fails, and stimulants are
insufficient to restore the tagging
pulse, then must we bow in humble
submission to that mysterious power
which will eventually conquer us all.
Patch Grove, Aug 49, 1869. JP. CORY