A treatise on the esculent funguses of England: containing an account of their classical history, uses, characters, development, structure, nutritious properties, modes of cooking and preserving, etc.Badham, David
Science
A treatise on the esculent funguses of England: containing an account of their classical history, uses, characters, development, structure, nutritious properties, modes of cooking and preserving, etc.
Badham, David
Mushrooms -- England
[88] The _converse_ of this remark by no means holds true; the _Amanita
verna_, the _Am. phalloides_, the _Ag. semiglobatus_, _dryophilus_, and
_muscarius_, though amongst the most deadly of this class of plants, do
not change colour on being cut; the flesh of the first two is, moreover,
of a tempting whiteness, like that of the common puff-ball, than which
there is not a safer or a better fungus. “Omnino ne crede colori” is our
only safe motto here.
[89] Johnson’s Dictionary.
[90] He was wrong here: the oak produces both the _Fistulina hepatica_
and the _Agaricus fusipes_, two excellent funguses, particularly the
last, which, properly dressed or pickled, have not many rivals.
[91] As was known to the Greeks, ‘Prepare your funguses with vinegar,
salt, or honey, for thus you will rob them of their poison,’ οὕτω γὰρ
αὐτῶν τὸ πνιγώδες ἀφαιρεῖται.
[92] Vittadini, however, ate largely of this fungus, which he describes
as very disagreeable, though it did not prove poisonous to him.
[93] Puccinelli.
[94] In a whole family, cut off in the year 1843, at Lucca, by dining
on some poisonous Boletuses, drawn and first described by Professor
Puccinelli under the ominous name of _Boletus terribilis_, besides most
extensive ulceration of the mucous coat of the intestines throughout a
very considerable portion of their extent, together with injection of the
vessels of the brain, the lungs were found congested, and the cavities of
the heart distended, with coagula of blood.
[95] For a most interesting record of all the more recent poisonings from
funguses in Italy, the reader may consult Professor delle Chiaje’s work
on Toxicology. The following, the only one I shall give, is to be found
in Vittadini’s excellent work on funguses:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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