ARE MUSHROOMS POISONOUS?

Dunstan Times, Issue 1084, 9 March 1883, Page 3

ARE MUSHROOMS POISONOUS?

The deaths which are frequently reported from the consumption of supposed edible fungi render this question an important one. Professor Politick, of Breslau, h-s lately made experiments on the cninim n mushroom, and the practical results ,o'itainod are interesting nail valuable. It appears that all common mushrooms arc poisonous—a fact not sullicicntly understood—hut cooking deprives them in a greater or less degree of their poisonous qualities. The repeated washing with cold water, which they usually undergo to clean them, takes away a portion of the poisb u, and boiling does the rest ; hut the water in which they have been boiled is highly poisonous, and should always lie carefully disposed of. Experiments which Profess -r Ponfiek mads on dogs showed that if a dog ate its own weight of raw mushrooms it fell sick, but recovered ; if it ate one and a, half per cent, the poison had a more violent but not facal effect, and if it ate two percent. it was inevitably fatal. The water in which mushrooms had been boded was fatmore poisonous than the raw mushrooms ; while the mushrooms tuns boiled could bo taken without hurt to the amount of Hu per cent, of the weight of the dog’s body. Washing with cold water does not remove all the poison, so that mushrooms thus prepared wore poisonous when taken in largo quantities. Dried mushrooms are still dangerous for f om I'd to 20 days, and also the water in which they have been boiled. They require to ba dried for at least a whole mouth, and are really only safe afterfacts to he borne in mind.—Loudon Times.