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worthy of note yet unpublished, let it be printed in one of our journals, and then cited therefrom.

2. That the bracketing and correcting (where necessary) of the symptoms taken by Hahnemann from authors be done with the utmost thoroughness.

3. That no mere "clinical symptoms" be admitted.

4. That full information be given at the outset as to the authorities for and subjects of the symptoms, as by Dr. Hering, and in the Hahnemann Materia Medica.

5. That each subject of overdosing or poisoning shall be numbered and referred to separately, as are the provers ; and the circumstances of the case briefly stated.

6. That all natural groups of symptoms be preserved (where we have the original records) by references between the component elements of such groups in the several places where they occur.

One word in conclusion. It must be borne in mind that, although we need such a work as this a new, fuller, and better Jahr, it is not our only or even our chief desideratum as regards the Materia Medica. We want monographs. on medicines, in which they receive exhaustive study and presentation in all their aspects and relations. No one man can do more than a few of these in his lifetime; and therefore we want numerous workers. We hope that the Hahnemann Publishing Society may no longer have to call for such in vain.

348

MISCELLANEOUS.

Toxicology of the Poison of various Fungi.*

1. AGARICUS MUSCARIUS (Linnæi).

Setting aside the oldest relevant observations on account of their defectiveness, let us observe that Paulus, from various poisonings with the fly mushroom, cites the following symptoms: -Nausea, vomiting, fainting, anguish, prostration, and stupor, a sensation of constriction of the trachea. Some of the patients had cutting pain in the abdomen. After emetics the fungus was ejected upwards and downwards along with bloody masses.

Vadrot observed in some French soldiers who were poisoned: anguish, choking, burning thirst, violent pains in the abdomen; small, irregular pulse, cold sweat, cyanosis of the face, general shivering, tympanites of the abdomen, very effusive stools. The coldness and cyanosis of the extremities, delirium, and extremely violent pain continued uninterruptedly till death, which occurred the next night. Emetics saved some from death.

Fricker relates that a child of sixteen months had eaten some fly mushroom raw; very rapidly there set in a deathlike sleep, in which the pupils were dilated and insensible to light; the facé puffed up, pale, and bluish about the eyes, nose and mouth; pulse small and irregular; slight twitching all over the body, and slight distortion of the upper extremities set in.

Krombholz communicates the history of a day-labourer, aged 50, who drank a decoction of twenty-four of these Agarici for an oedematous swelling of the feet. Soon after he vomited often and violently, and had many diarrhoeic stools; complained of violent pain in the abdomen, fell into an unconscious state, and soon died. In cases of slight poisoning only staggering as from drink, with vertigo and inclination to vomit.

Of late years, some observations were published in France, which deviate somewhat from the above. In October, 1859, six

* Neue Zeitschrift für Hom. Klinik., Bd. 18, No. 19.

officers ate a dish of Agaricus muscarius. In six hours vomiting set in, soon followed by colic, and then by convulsions, and a sensation of heat in the epigastrium, consciousness intact till death.

The experiments by various hands on animals are valuable. The most careful ones are those of Krombholz. Cats, dogs, birds, frogs, &c. He sometimes used decoctions of the fungus in milk, sometimes the expressed juice, which he introduced into the stomach. In two cases injections under the skin of the back. Results as follows:

In general, during the experiments, or at most within fifteen minutes, the first symptoms set in. With small doses, the animals were sad and their faces betrayed uneasiness. In most cases vomiting followed, or frequent stools, or both at once; whereupon the animals recovered in from half to one hour. With larger doses violent attacks ensued, quickest and most violent after injecting the cellular tissue. As constant symptoms were observed, restlessness, fear, trembling, vertigo, staggering as from drink, dilatation of the pupils, sight impaired or destroyed, dulness of all the senses, breathing rapidly and heavily, but towards the end slowly and painfully; twitching of the cervical muscles; palsy soon setting in, especially of the hinder part and hinder extremities. Less constant symptoms were, increased and involuntarily evacuations (vomiting, stool, and urine) and salivation. The least constant were exalted sensitiveness previous to stupefaction, dread of water (hydrophobia), and violent thirst. In two cases death ensued with general convulsions; in most of the others quietly. Reports post-mortem are very sparing.

In three patients of Vadrot's was found a considerable accumulation of fetid gas in the stomach and bowels, whose mucous membranes showed signs of more or less inflammation and gangrenous spots (extravasation ?) In some places that of the small intestines quite destroyed. In a fourth subject the liver was also considerably swollen, and the gall filled with thick, dark bile.

In Krombholz's case, the post-mortem exhibited severe congestion of blood in the spinal cord, brain, and its membranes, lungs, the right side of the heart, the liver, and kidneys; striking congestion also in the whole of the venous system, with black thick blood. The mucous membrane of the alimentary canal reddened here and there, but with no trace of softening or destruction.

Wolf found in a girl of 6, who was found dead twelve hours after eating this fungus, numerous death spots, teeth tight clenched, pupils much dilated; abdomen distended, sphincter ani open. No important changes in the cranial cavity; the fauces, trachea, and œsophagus not inflamed. Heart flabby and relaxed, with some blood in the right side, none in the left. Stomach much distended, pale, with a bluish spot about one centimètre diameter on the lesser curvature; the tunica intima in the pyloric portion rosy red, yet no peculiar inflammation; the inner parietes of the stomach pale, very thick, coated with tough

mucus.

Krombholz, in his experiments on animals, found after death (besides abnormal distribution of the blood) great redness of the mucous membranes, prominence of the eyes, contraction and emptiness of the intestines, excess of bile in the gall, viscosity and blackness of the blood. Less constant symptoms were redness of the buccal cavity and the salivary glands. In warm-blooded animals the blood half coagulated; in cold-blooded, quite fluid; serous exudation in the cavities, and prominence of the abdomen.

2. AGARICUS PHALLOIDES (Fries).

The cases of poisoning with this fungus (the Knollen-Blatterpilz) appear to have occurred more frequently than with the Agaricus muscarius, partly because its action is more intense, partly because it is so easily mistaken for the commonly esteemed Champignon.*

In these cases, symptoms precisely corresponding with cholera are constantly observed. Girard makes a prominent remark that even the quantity of the stools adds to this resemblance; equally constant are the cardialgia, and colic of the most violent kind, with pain of the head, tormenting thirst which can not be quenched because drink at once brings on vomiting; cool skin, cold sweat, coldness and cyanosis of face and extremities, tympanites of the abdomen, shivering of the whole body, anguish, and fainting fits.

Urination in most cases strikingly diminished, at times wholly

*This being a perfectly vague term, the botanical name should have been added. It may mean Agaricus orcades, which is the English "Champignon."

suppressed. The pulse is described as extraordinarily small, hardly perceptible; and the pulsation of the heart as very feeble. Sometimes jaundiced tint of the skin and pains in the liver. In some cases consciousness is undisturbed, in others stupefaction and sopor; often convulsions, sometimes partial, sometimes general, and even trismus and tetanus. Maschka found by postmortem the following phenomena, in seven cases. No trace of stiffening after death; pupils considerably dilated, reddish froth of small bubbles in the bronchial tubes, blood in all the vessels and the right heart, fluid, and of a dark cherry-brown colour; fatty degeneration of the liver in three cases, gall-bladder moderately filled, mucous coat of stomach and intestines covered with thick, tough, reddish-brown mucus. Ecchymosis and suggillation at the fundus of the stomach only in two cases. Bladder in all cases so full that it reached nearly to the navel, parenchymatous organs more or less hyperemic, and full of numberless ecchymoses, most of which are in the integument, so also the pericardium, and the serous covering of the heart itself.

3. BOLETUS SATANAS (Lenz).

One of the most dangerous fungi is the one named by Lenz Boletus satanas, a variety of B. luridus. The most renowned German mycologists have been brought to the brink of the grave by eating this fungus. But it is just their experience we have to thank for authentic descriptions of the poisoning as presented below in the notes of those naturalists. These also permit us to prognosticate this remedy as a valuable simile in cholera. The first symptoms of poisoning occur very soon, from two to six hours after, and consist of a general feeling of indisposition, burning and scraping in the gullet, vertigo, and nausea. Vomiting soon ensues, and is often repeated even long after the stomach is emptied, so that nothing comes up but an excessively bitter fluid, the ejected matter not unfrequently mixed with blood; the vomiturition is accompanied with violent pains in the bowels, whilst the body is covered with cold sweat; diarrhoea supervenes, with very violent colic and tenesmus, fæces often mixed with blood; later on the cold in the extremities is accompanied with extremely painful cramp in the muscles of the limbs, e. g. the calves of the legs; the strength fails entirely; the pulse

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