Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1886-05-01
Terrible as this ergot is, in the hands
of science a very valuable medicine is
produced from 1t.

Terrible as this ergot is, in the hands
of science very valuable medicine is
produced from It,
The gypsies use mysterious pois-
on which they confess is procured
from a fungus which many suppose
may be related to the ergot. Among
the many jealously guarded secrets of
the gypsy race is the art OF preparing
the ''drei'' or ''dri," most deadly de
structive agent, for which medical sci
ence knows no antidote. Analysis de-
tects no no1ious propertiesa and the
most careful microscopic examination
shows it to consist of an apparently
harmless vegetable substance. The
drei is, then, as will appear from
what follows, merely a brown powder,
collected from a species of fungus,
forming the nearest connecting link
between the animal and vegetabl king
doms. The powder consists of minute
sporuIes. These fungoid sporuIes
possesses the peculiar property OF
being further developed, only by act
ual contact with living animal matter,
las when swallowed,) they then throw
out innumerable greenish yellow tibr=
es, twelve or eighteen inches long.
When the drei is administered, usual
ly in warm drink, they attach them
selves to the mucous membrane, ger
inmate, throw out millions of fbres,
which grow with awful rapidity, first
producing hectic fever, then cough,
at last accompanied by incessant spit
ting of blood, till death inevitably su
pervenes, usually in about fortnight
or three weeks time. In Italy there
was a case of this kind in 1860. The
patient was attended by physicians
accustomed to deal with cases Of slow
poisoning. No suspicion of foul play
was entertained until the day after
the decease, when, an autopsy being
held, revealed the cause of death
The fibres, the growth Of which had
ceased with the cessation of the ami
NAL life and heat that had supported
them, were already partially decom-
posed; had another day or two elaps-
ed no trace Of the foul deed would
have been left, We could quote many
other instances Of the destructiveness
of fungi; we could enumerate many
more curious and interesting things
concerning them, but space does not
permit. The mould that gets into our
bread, cheese, ink, vinegar, and host
of other things all belong to the fungi
race. The fungi help to absorb de-
caying substances, and aid nature IN
converting dead matter into rclh ma
terial from which new and more high
ly organized structures may arise.
They aid ID the formamtion of the
rich loan, found in the woods, in
which gardeners love SO well to plant
their favorite flowers. Many of the
fungi are excellent as food; but the
writer agrees with Horace who says
The meadow mushrulns are in kind the best;
1t is i'll trusting any of the rest
to which we would add,-unless you
understand them. ''Mushrums,
saith Pliny, ''grow in showers Of raine;
they come from the slime of trees. "
According to Dioscorides: poison
Gus mushrums grow where old rusty
iron Ieth, or cotton clouts, or near to
serpents dens, OF rootes of trees that
bring foorthe deadly fruit" but
science reigns today, and it has taught
us many things that these older au-
thors did not know In conclusion, In
the words of Charles Mackay:-
Love Nature, and her smallest atoms
Shall whisper to thy mind
FRED ANDERSON.