SPROUTING POTATOES.—These may at times contain a poison, solanine, an al kaloid of its botanical group, resembling in effects those of belladonna, stra monium, hyoscyamus, and tobacco. Pfuhl recently reported the cases of sixty German soldiers who became ill at the same time with symptoms of gastro enteritis after partaking of some cooked sprouting potatoes. The symptoms were collapse, prostration, with more or less jaundice. During sprouting much more solanine is developed. In using such po tatoes care should be taken to thoroughly peel the vegetable and take out the "eyes" deeply, thus minimizing the dan ger. Pfuhl attributes many mild cases of acute indigestion and diarrhoea to this cause.
Treatment of Grain and Vegetable Poisoning. — This limits itself to re moval of the cause and to treatment recommended under the previous head ing.
Mushroom Poisoning. — Probably the most dangerous feature connected with the use of fungi as food is the belief that the ordinary tests utilized in the average household are at all reliable. Depending upon the taste or odor of the mushroom, or the fact that it does not blacken a silver object while cooking, merely detracts the attention from the only comparatively trustworthy tests: the botanical characteristics. This im plies the necessity of adequate knowl edge in mushroom gatherers. That more cases of poisoning do not occur is be cause those who supply green grocers and other dealers either cultivate them or limit their selection to fungi of a few kinds known to be generally used with impunity. Safety lies with them in the self-imposed restriction of not picking mushrooms with which they are not ab solutely familiar. Amateur gatherers are to he feared in this connection; and it is always best to refrain from using mushrooms obtained from such a source unless the gatherer be known to possess due competence.
A novice who proposes to gather mush rooms for himself should never use a species for food until he has found out positively its name and its non-poisonous character. He should then familiarize himself with this species until he knows it from all others as certainly as he knows the cabbage, the turnip, the cauliflower, or any other of our common vegetables.
He should confine himself rigidly to this his personal edible list, and should add to it only as thus recommended. His authority for the name and qualities of each kind he adds to this list should be some person having an unquestioned ex pert knowledge of mushrooms. There is no single test and no safe series for poisonous mushrooms. F. V. Coville (Di vision of Botany, United States Depart ment of Agriculture Circ. No. 13, '95).
There is only one rule to be followed in avoiding poisonous mushrooms, and that is to know that the particular variety is safe because it Las been eaten with impunity. That is, the one who picks the mushrooms should be able to say that lie knows a kind to be good, not because it has this or that character istic, but because he recognizes it as one that he has tried. Editorial (North western Lancet, Jan. 1, '9S).
Edible Mushrooms. — Four varieties of mushrooms were found in Washing ton markets by Mr. F. V. Coville, Bot antist of the United States Department of Agriculture. These about represent the kinds generally sold elsewhere in the country and with which most per sons are familiar. They do not, however, include all the edible fungi, but a series within which safety always lies, provided no idiosyncrasy in the consumer, insuffi cient cooking, or injudicious consump tion, especially by children, intervene to give rise to untoward effects. Indeed, death has resulted under such circum stances from the use of perfectly-identi fied edible nmshrooms.
In fresh specimens the surface of the Aparieus campestris (Fig. 1) is white, but various shades of the light brown, either plain or checked, are often found. The gills in a newly-expanded mush room fresh from the field are of a beauti ful and delicate pale-pink color, often with a tinge of salmon. The gills end toward the centre with an abrupt up ward curve without being attached to the stem as in some other kinds of mush rooms.