Part 4

This "poison-cup" may be taken as the cautionary symbol of the genus Amanita, common to all the species. _Any mushroom or toadstool, therefore, whose stem is thus set in a socket, or which has any suggestion of such a socket, should be labelled "poison"_; for, though some of the species having this cup are edible, from the popular point of view, it is wiser and certainly safer to condemn the entire group. But the cup must be _sought_ for. We shall thus at least avoid the possible danger of a fatal termination to our amateur experiments in gustatory mycology; for, while various other mushrooms might, and do, induce even serious illness through digestive disturbance, and secondary, possibly fatal, complications, the Amanita group are now conceded to be the only fungi which contain a positive, active poisonous principle whose certain logical consequence is death.

[Sidenote: =The "veil" or shroud=]

Another structural feature of the Amanita is shown in the illustration, but has been omitted from the above consideration to avoid confusion. This is the "veil" which, in the young mushroom, originally connected the edge of the cap, or pileus, with the stem, and whose gradual rupture necessarily follows the expansion of the cap, until a mere frill or ring is left about the stem at the original point of contact.

But this feature is a frequent character in many edible mushrooms, as witness the several examples in the edible species of our plates, and therefore of no dangerous significance _per se_, being merely a membrane which protects the growing gills.

[Sidenote: =Scales and scurfy spots=]

Nor are the other features, the remnants of the volva on the summit of the cap, to be considered of primary importance from the popular point of view, for the reason--firstly, that these fragments, while conspicuous and constant in _Amanita muscarius_ (Plate 4), are _not_ thus permanent in several other species of Amanitæ, notably the white-satin-capped _Amanita vernus_, _Amanita phalloides_, and _Amanita Cæsarea_, in which the fragments are deciduous; and, secondly, because the same general effect of these warty scales is so clearly imitated in other mushrooms which are distinctly edible, as in examples Plate 10 and Plate 16. It is to the _volva_ or _cup_, then, that we must devote our special attention as the only safe and constant character. And this leads me to the prominent and necessary consideration of another common species of Amanita, mentioned above, in which even this cup is more or less obscure.

THE POISONOUS FLY-MUSHROOM

_Agaricus (Amanita) muscarius_

[Sidenote: =A deceptive Amanita=]

This, one of the most strikingly beautiful of our toadstools, is figured in Plate 4. Its brilliant cap of yellow, orange, or even scarlet, studded with white or grayish raised spots, can hardly be unfamiliar to even the least observant country walker. Its favorite habitat is the woods, and, in the writer's experience especially, beneath hemlocks and poplars, where he has seen this species year after year in whole companies, and in all stages shown in the plate at the same time, from the globular young specimen almost covered with its white warts just lifting its head above the brown carpet to the fully expanded individual, in which the spots have assumed a shrunken and brownish tint.

[Sidenote: =Used as a fly-poison=]

[Sidenote: =Its obscure cup=]

The consideration of this species is of the _utmost importance_, as its beauty is but an alluring mask, which has enticed many to their destruction; among the more recent of its conspicuous victims having been the Czar Alexis of Russia. For this is another cosmopolitan type of mushroom, common alike in America, Great Britain, Europe, and Asia, in all of which countries it is notorious for its poisonous resources. It is commonly known as the "Fly-agaric," its substance macerated in milk having been employed for centuries as an effectual fly-poison. After the reader's introduction to the botanical character of the Amanita, he would, presumably, be somewhat suspicious of the present species. The suggestive white or dingy fragments upon its cap, it is true, would alone arouse his suspicions, but in the examination of the stem for the telltale volva or cup its verification might be somewhat in doubt. It is for this reason that the species is emphasized in these pages, as the _Amanita muscarius_, judging from the great dissimilarity of its numerous portraits from all countries, would seem to be remarkably protean, especially with reference to its stalk. The majority of the portraits of this reprobate presents the volva as distinct and as clean cut as in the _A. vernus_ just described, and the stalk above as equally smooth, features which are usually at variance with the associated botanical description of the species, which often characterizes the volva as "incomplete" or "obscure," and the stem as "rough and scaly." If the portraits in these works are correct, the Amanita qualities of the species are clearly displayed, but if their accompanying descriptions are to be credited, and such seem to be in perfect accord with the specimens which I have always found, the _A. muscarius_ would seem in need of a more authentic historian.

_PLATE IV_

FLY MUSHROOM

=Agaricus (Amanita) muscarius=

=Pileus:= Diameter three to six inches, quite flat at maturity; color brilliant yellow, orange, or scarlet, becoming pale with age, dotted with adhesive white, at length pale brownish warts, the remnants of the volva.

=Gills:= Pure white, very symmetrical, various in length, the shorter ones terminating under the cap with an almost vertical abruptness.

=Spores:= Pure white. A spore-print of this species is shown in Plate 37.

=Stem:= White, yellowish with age, becoming shaggy, at length scaly, the scales below appearing to merge into the form of an obscure cup.

=Volva:= Often obscure, indicated by a mere ragged line of loose outward curved shaggy scales around a bulbous base.

=Flesh:= White.

=Habitat:= Woods and their borders, especially favoring pine and hemlock.

=Season:= Summer and autumn.

[Sidenote: =Volva scales permanent=]

The example figured in the plate presents the stem and volva as they have always appeared in specimens obtained by the writer. In the young individuals the stem is waxy-white, becoming later a dull, pale ochre hue, the lower half being shaggy and torn, and beset with loose projecting woolly points which resolve themselves below into scales with loose tips curved outward, and so distantly disposed upon the bulbous base as to leave _no marked definition_ of the continuous rim or opening of a cup. But the cup is there, and in a section of the bud state of the mushroom could have been seen, even as in the _white warts_ upon the surface of the _younger_ specimens we note the evidences of the upper portion of the same white _volva_. In many other species of Amanita, notably _A. vernus_, as already mentioned, these volva fragments generally wither and are shed from the cap. They are thus not to be counted on as a permanent token. But in the fly-mushroom they form a _distinct character_, as they _adhere firmly to the smooth skin_ of the pileus, and in drying, instead of shrivelling and curling and falling off, simply shrink, turn brownish, and in the maturely expanded mushroom appear like scattered drops of mud which have dried upon the pileus. Another peculiar structural feature of this mushroom is shown in the sectional drawing herewith given. The shorter gills, instead of rounding off as they approach the pileus (see _a_), terminate abruptly almost at right angles to their edge. The contrast from the usual form will be more apparent by comparison with the section of the parasol-mushroom on page 114.

Few species of mushrooms have such an interesting history as this. Its deadly properties were known to the ancients. From the earliest times its deeds of notoriety are on record.

[Sidenote: =Historical Amanita=]

This is quite possibly the species alluded to by Pliny as "very conveniently adapted for poisoning," and is not improbably the mushroom referred to by this historian in the following quotation from his famous _Natural History_: "Mushrooms are a dainty food, but deservedly held in disesteem since the notorious crime committed by Agrippina, who through their agency poisoned her husband, the Emperor Claudius; and at the same moment, in the person of her son Nero, inflicted another poisonous curse upon the whole world, herself in particular."

[Sidenote: =Amanita dipsomaniacs=]

Notwithstanding its fatal character, this mushroom, it is said, is habitually eaten by certain peoples, to whom the poison simply acts as an intoxicant. Indeed, it is customarily thus employed as a narcotic and an exhilarant in Kamchatka and Asiatic Russia generally, where the Amanita drunkard supplants the opium fiend and alcohol dipsomaniac of other countries. Its narcotizing qualities are commemorated by Cooke in his _Seven Sisters of Sleep_, wherein may be found a full description of the toxic employment of the fungus.

The writer has heard it claimed that this species of Amanita has been eaten with impunity by certain individuals; but the information has usually come from sources which warrant the belief that another harmless species has been confounded with it. The warning of my Frontispiece may safely be extended to the fly-amanita. Its beautiful gossamer veil may aptly symbolize a shroud.

[Sidenote: =Forewarned and forearmed=]

By fixing these simple structural features of the Amanita in mind, and emphasizing them by a study of our Frontispiece, we may now consider ourselves armed against our greatest foe, and may with some assurance make our limited selection among this lavish larder of wild provender continually going to waste by the ton in our woods and pastures and lawns. For it is now a fact generally believed by fungologists, and being gradually demonstrated, that the edible species, far from being the exception, as formerly regarded, are the rule; that a great majority of our common wild fungi are at least harmless, if not positively wholesome and nutritious as food.

THE POISONOUS ALKALOID

The toxic and deadly effects of certain mushroom poisons, as already described, have been known since ancient times; and the prolonged intoxicating debauches to-day prevalent among the Amanita dipsomaniacs of Northern Russia and Kamchatka, consequent upon the allurements of the decoction of the fly-agaric, are well-known matters of history.

The true chemical character of this poison, however, was not discovered until 1868, when it was successfully isolated by chemical analyses of Drs. Vigier, Schmiedeberg, Currie, and Koppe, and ascertained to be an alkaloid principle, to which was given originally the name of bulbosine, since variously known as muscarine, and finally and most appropriately amanitine.

[Sidenote: =Mr. Palmer's discovery=]

The poison thus identified, it was reserved to an American authority on edible fungi, Mr. Julius A. Palmer, of Boston, to discover the fact of its confinement to but one fungus family--the Amanita.

In the year 1879, in an article contributed by him to the _Moniteur Scientifique_, of Paris, he states:

"Mushrooms are unfit for food by decay or other cause, producing simply a disagreement with the system by containing some bitter, acrid, or slimy element, _or by the presence of a wonderful and dangerous alkaloid which is absorbed in the intestinal canal_. This alkaloid, so far as known, is _found only in the Amanita family_."

To Mr. Palmer, then, is due the chemical segregation of the Amanita group as the only repository of this deadly toxic.

[Sidenote: =Lesser poisoning=]

It has not been discerned in other species of fungi, whose so-called "poisonous" effects are more often traceable to mere indigestibility, the selection of "over-ripe" specimens, or to idiosyncrasy, rather than to their distinctly poisonous properties.

Many mushrooms of other families which _do_ possess ingredients chemically at war with the human system--as the _Russula emetica_ and certain _Lactarii_, for instance--at least give a fair warning, either by taste or odor, of their dark intentions.

[Sidenote: =Antidote for Amanita=]

[Sidenote: =First authentic application=]

Owing to the numerous deaths every year consequent upon mushroom-eating, and nearly always directly traceable to the Amanita, the discovery of an antidote to this poison has been the quest of many noted chemists--several supposed antidotes having been experimented with upon dogs and other animals without desired results. These included atropine, the deadly crystalline alkaloid from the _Atropa belladonna_. The earlier experiments upon animals with this drug in Paris, as described by Dr. Gautier in 1884, while encouraging, were not considered conclusive, but were sufficient to warrant the suggestion that the treatment upon man might be effective. In a résumé of the subject in the Philadelphia _Medical and Surgical Reporter_, December, 1885, for the benefit of the medical practitioners who are so frequently called upon to attend cases of mushroom poisoning, Captain Charles McIlvaine recommended the administration of a dose of atropine of from 0.05 to 0.0002 milligramme, and it was later reserved for the same gentleman to witness the first authentic instance of the application of this remedy in antagonism with the Amanita poison in the human system. The report of this experience was afterwards published (see Bibliography, No. 6), embodying also a complete and authentic account of the symptoms and treatment of the cases by the attending physician, Dr. J. E. Shadle, of Shenandoah, Pa., which account I feel is appropriately included here, being in full sympathy with the solicitous spirit of my pages. I therefore quote the statement of Dr. Shadle for the benefit of those interested.

SHENANDOAH, PA., October 26, 1885.

Mr. CHAS. MCILVAINE:

MY DEAR SIR,--In compliance with your request, I take pleasure in submitting to your consideration the following report of five cases of toadstool-poisoning which recently came under my observation and treatment:

[Sidenote: =Amanita poisoning symptoms=]

On Monday, August 31, at 10 A.M., I was hastily called to see a family, consisting of Mr. F., his wife, his mother-in-law, Mrs. R., and his brother-in-law, Thomas R., who, the messenger stated, were having "cramps in the bowels."

Promptly responding to the call, I found them suffering from intense abdominal pains, nausea, vomiting, boneache, and feelings of distress in the _præcordial_ region.

Mr. F., twenty-nine years of age, was a miner by occupation, and had led an intemperate life. Mrs. F., twenty-two years of age, was a brunette, possessing a delicate body, and bearing a decided _neurotic_ tendency. Mrs. R., forty-five years of age, was a small _nervo-bilious_ woman. Thomas R., thirteen years of age, was a youth well developed.

While I was examining these patients, Mrs. B., forty years of age, a neighbor of the family, presented herself, manifesting in a milder degree the same symptoms. She was a tall, spare woman. Previous to their present attack of illness their general health was good; in none could signs of disease be traced.

Picture to your mind five persons suffering from cholera morbus in its most aggravated form, and you will be enabled to form a pretty correct idea of what I beheld in the Faris residence on Monday morning, August 31.

That five individuals, four being members of one household, should be attacked simultaneously by a similar train of symptoms, naturally gave rise in my mind to a suspicion that something poisonous had been eaten. Upon close inquiry I obtained the following history:

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 30, Mr. F. and Thomas R. were walking through a wood not far distant from their home, and, in wandering from place to place, found clusters of very beautiful toadstools growing abundantly under trees, among which the chestnut predominated.

[Sidenote: =Amanita poisoning symptoms=]

Attracted by their appearance, and supposing them to be edible, they gathered a large quantity, with the anticipation of having a delicious dish for their Sunday evening meal.

Various other kinds were growing in the same locality, but this particular variety impressed them as being the most inviting. A correct specimen of the _fungus_ they had collected having been sent you, I will leave its botanical description to your pen.

At about nine o'clock, five hours after gathering them, Mrs. F. cooked three pints of the toadstools, stewing them in milk, and seasoning with butter, pepper, and salt.

They had dinner at a very early hour on this day, and by the time they had supper all felt exceedingly hungry, in consequence of which they ate quite heartily. Mrs. F. and her brother vied with each other as to the quantity they could eat. In addition to this dish, bread and butter and coffee were served.

Soon after supper the family retired. None experienced the least discomfort until towards daybreak, when considerable distress in the abdominal organs and cerebral disturbance manifested themselves. Prominent among the initial symptoms were foul breath, coated tongue, pain in the stomach, nausea, and a peculiar sickening sensation in the epigastrium. These symptoms gradually increased in severity, and in twelve hours after the ingestion of the poison, when I made my first visit, the condition of the victims involved great danger. Intense vomiting was present in four, while in Mrs. R.'s case a violent retching seemed to persist.

Gastro-intestinal irritation, followed by a relaxed condition of the bowels, showed itself in about thirty hours after the onset of the more active symptoms. With the appearance of this trouble an insufferable tenesmus developed, producing paroxysms of severe agony. This was particularly true in the case of Mrs. R., whose suffering was so great that it became a formidable symptom to combat. Upon the subsidence of the more severe symptoms, the patients fell into a state of extreme prostration, accompanied by stupor and cold extremities. In the mother, son, and daughter this was profoundly marked. They were completely indifferent to persons and things around them, as well as to their own suffering.

[Sidenote: =Amanita poisoning symptoms=]

As the symptoms increased in violence, Thos. R. advanced into a state of coma, and Mrs. F. into coma vigil, and remained so for about twelve hours prior to death. The face had a shrunken and wrinkled appearance, the eyes were sunken, the skin was dusky, and the surface of the body was dry and cold to the touch. The pulse, a number of hours before death, was imperceptible at the wrist, and the heart-sounds were scarcely perceived by auscultation.

The pulse in all cases was notably affected, ranging from 120 to 140 per minute. In character it was soft and compressible; intermittent at intervals.

There was a distinct rise of temperature; the thermometer in the axilla registered as much as 140° F.

A mild form of delirium was an occasional event. In the case of Mrs. F. it formed an important element.

Respecting the special senses, it is well to mention that sight was peculiarly affected. Notwithstanding the fact that the pupils responded kindly to the action of the light, an unpleasant sensation of blindness frequently appeared, and continued for a few minutes.

In spite of all that was done to counteract its ravages, the effects of the poison were so extremely deadly that a fatal issue was the result in two cases. Thomas R. died in fifty-six and Mrs. F. in sixty-three hours after the ingestion of the toadstools.

_Treatment._--The treatment instituted was mainly symptomatic.

[Sidenote: =Amanita poisoning treatment=]

Fearing that undigested particles of toadstools might still be lying in the gastro-intestinal tract, to Mrs. R., who had not freely vomited, an emetic was administered, and to the rest a mild purge.

An intense thirst and a burning sensation being present in the mouth, throat, and stomach, small pieces of cracked ice were freely used with a view to allaying it.

For the gastro-intestinal irritation I prescribed with satisfactory results the following:

℞ Bismuth subnit., ʒv; Creosote, gtt. xv; Mucil. acaciæ, f℥i; Aq. menth. pip., q.s. ad f℥iii. M. Sig.--Teaspoonful every one or two hours.

1/8 grain of morph. sulph. was administered hypodermically to alleviate as much as possible the abdominal suffering.

The impending exhaustion and the failing heart's action I endeavored to combat with a free administration of alcoholic stimulants in combination with moderate doses of tincture of digitalis both by the mouth and under the skin.

In order to invite the circulation of the blood to the ice-cold surface of the body, heated bricks and bottles filled with hot water were placed in bed around the patients.

[Sidenote: =Diagnosis=]

Analyzing each symptom as it arose, and carefully observing the effects of the poison on the system, I formed the opinion that the toxic element contained in the noxious fungus eaten by these people was narcotic in its nature and spent its force on the nerve centres, especially selecting the one governing the function of respiration and the action of the heart.

Acting upon this conclusion, I began, in the early part of my treatment, subcutaneous injections of sulphate of atropine in frequently-repeated doses, ranging from 1/180 to 1/90 grain. The injections invariably were followed by a perceptible improvement in the patient; the heart's action became stronger, the pulse returned at the wrist, and the respiration increased in depth and fulness.

Through the agency of this remedy, supported by the other measures adopted, three (or sixty per cent.) of the patients recovered.

The lessons I draw from this experience are:

1. The poisoning produced by this variety of toadstool is slow in manifesting its effects.

2. That it destroys life by a process of asthenia.

3. That in atropine we have an antidote, and it should be pushed heroically from the earliest inception of the action of the poison.

I have the honor to remain

Yours very respectfully, J. E. SHADLE, M.D.

In reply to the queries, Was atropine administered in all the cases? and What was the total amount administered to each? Dr. Shadle responded as follows:

SHENANDOAH, PA., October 29, 1885.

MY DEAR MR. MCILVAINE:

Yours of the 27th I have received. The two questions you ask me therein I see are very important, and they should be answered as fully as possible. I am sorry I overlooked the matter in my report.

[Sidenote: =Amanitine and atropine=]