Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-29

ment of Agriculture, is making early his
tory In this line of research. Hav
ing devoted much attention to the study
of dangerous agarics, he proposes to sep
arate from all of the noxious species their
| specific poisons. With them he Will make
| experiments on rabbits and other animals,
| with view to observing their effects and
the usefulness of antidotes.
Naturally, he has selected for first trial
the most deadly of all mushroom, the
amanita muscaria. This species is some
times called the fly mushroom; single
specimen has been known to kill a pint Of
flies in a short time, those insects finding
1t very attractive 1t grows always In
woods or on the borders of woods having
a red or orange-colored top covered with
warts. When 1t first appears above
ground 1t looks like an egg standing on
end Not long ago man wrote from
Oregon to DR.. Taylor, saying:
with this mail send you what I shall
call the poultry mushroom till you give me
| a better name for 1t. In its habits 1t
seems a link between vegetable and ami
NAL life. 1t lives in fir and hazel woods
on hill or fiat ground. At first 1t pushes
| itself up through the ground and sits UP
on end just like an egg, from the size OF
| a grouses esq to that of giant goose
| egg. The period of the hatch depends
upon the degree of humidity and heat in
| the atmosphere. Generally 1T requires
about three days One other quality II
| has in common with its biped relative;
1t sometimes dies and rots in the egg.
Obtaining the Crystals.
It is undoubtedly the deadly amanita
to which the writer refers After awhile
the egg is hatched-in other words, it
bursts, and the umbrelIa-shaped mush-
room grows out of 1t. The lower part of
| the egg shell remains to envelop the foot
of the stalk ike a cup. Other small frag
ments Of the shell adhere to the sticky top
| of the red or orange-hued umbrella, giving
| to the latter warty look. A piece of this
agaric as big as pea Will commonly cause
death. But the worst OF II Is that 1t proi
duces no symptoms until ten or twelve
hours have passed. when IL is too late to
administer an antdote.
DR.. Taylor takes these mushrooms and
soaks them in alcohol. After giving It
| time to absorb sufficient quantity of the
| poison the alcohol is poured off. The al
| cohol is then evaporated, leaving behind
| 1t a gummy substance To this substance
| benZine is added, which coagulates the
| gummy stuff, leaving the pure poison in
| solution. Finally the solution is evapo-
| rated and the poison crystals are left be-
hind.
In this manner the fatal element of the
worst of all fungi has been isolated. The
! next question is what to do with it. Some
! useful experiments have been made with it
already Its specific action In human be-
| ings and other animals is to paralyZe the
| nerve centers and stop the heart. The vic
| tim dies literally of heart failure. 1t has
| been aScertained that an almost micro
scopic quantity administered to frog viii
soon cause its heart to stop beating There
are few vegetable toxic agents SO deadly
| as this poison, to which the name "amani-
| tim has been given.
| The Antfdote Found.
| Fortunately, there is thoroughly effec-
tive antidote for amanitin. 1t is sNlphate OF
| atropin, obtained from the so-caled deadly
| nightshade. A frog that has received a
| hypodermic injection of atropin experiences
no ill effects from a dose of amanitn. On
the other hand, a frogs heart that has
| been brought to a stop by the mushroom
poison quickly resumes it's action under
| the influence of the antidote. Physiologic-
ally speaking, what is true Of frog is
usually true of a human being. This case
| is no exception, so that anybody who is
provided with sulphate of atropn need
| have no fear of the amanita plant.
| 1t Is well known that some very danger
GUS species of mushrooms are commonly
| eaten with impunity in Europe They are
| first soaked in vinegar for a while, and
then they are stepped in scalding water,
| after which they are taken out of the wa
ter and wrung out in a dry cloth before
cooking. BY this means practically all of
the poison is removed from them and they
are rendered harmless. No better precau-
ton could be recommended in all cases
| where there is the slightest DOUBT to the
| esculent quality OF species gathered. 1t
| may be, however, that 1t would not suffice
| with every kind of poisonous agaric. Small
| quantities of the amanita, by the way,
| sometimes cause people to stagger about,
laughing and committing all sorts of alb
surdities as IL drunk. Oddly enough. some
persons seem to be proof against the toxic
| action of mushrooms.
| A kind of amanta, only less deadly than
| the muscaria, is entirely white and has no
| warts. Its appearance being not such as to