Journal of Proceedings. liii
Fungi as Poisons.
By Henry T. Wharton, M.A., M.R.C.S., F.Z.S.
Last year you did me the honour to listen to a paper on " Fungi as
Food," wherein I detailed some of my own experiences. IS I were now to
rely solely on my own experiences of " Fungi as Poisons," the present
paper would be as short as the celebrated chapter on "Snakes in
Iceland," for I am happy to say I have no such experience whatever.
All I wish to do at present is to point out how we may be enabled
to enjoy the many delicacies that Fungi present to us, without running
any risk of a jury bringing in a verdict on us of " accidental death
from eating poisonous mushrooms."
I have no intention of detailing to you the baneful influences of any
Fungi in ordinary natural conditions. I shall not touch upon the
subject that Mr. Worthington Smith has made so peculiarly his own,
the potato disease ; nor vex my friend Mr. Plowright by discussing the
part that any Puccinia plays in destroying our wheat. " Bust, Smut,
Mildew and Mould " I leave in abler hands than mine. The evils that
microscopic Fungi cause are many enough, but such are never the cause
o£ accidental death. They are not, perhaps, poisonous at all as
individuals; the destruction they cause is mainly due to their
enormous power of reproduction. Similarly, a single locust is a
harmless insect, but a swarm of locusts can soon lay a whole country
waste. If we could realize what a million times a million means, we
could have some conception of Fungus growth from Dr. Preuss's
calculation that there may be fifty million millions (50,000,000,000,000)
of the so-called " foul brood" Fungus in a single cubic inch of infected
honeycomb.
" Fungi as Poisons " are to be to us now only those belonging to the
higher groups, such as we might take home and eat in mistake for others
known to be esculent.
In the first place you will want me to tell you how you are to know a
Fungus that is poisonous from one that is not. I can only tell you that
there is no rule whatever by which you can make this distinction. You
can only arrive at such knowledge by the same means as you apply to
flowering plants; you must learn first to know what each species is—its
specific differences. No rule of thumb will save you from the coroner.
Day by day you must learn to know each Fungus as a species,
botanically, just as you know Parsley from Hemlock. The knowledge
will not come rapidly. But if you have learnt half a dozen species
to-day, you can easily learn a dozen more the next time you try.
As you get on, you will only wonder how, when there are so many
species described, it should be known of so few whether they are edible
or poisonous. If you are wise, you will have learnt and tried all those
that your books tell you are edible, and have learnt to know well all
those that are said to be poisonous, before you make any experiments on
yourselves. You will have plenty of opportunities of tasting new
delicacies before you need run any risk of being poisoned, if only you
will observe the golden rule of safety. Never taste any Fungus that you
are not quite sure you know botanically as a species.
Poisonous Fungi probably bear nearly the same proportion to edible
ones that poisonous plants do to wholesome ones, and either may
similarly occur in the same natural group or order. No amount of
caution will ever by itself avail you ; to be a practised fungus-eater you
must know each species well—you have not only to "first catch your
hare," but you must also know whether it is a good hare or not,