The Count, an attaché of the Italian legation, a cultivated gentleman of nearly sixty years of age, considered something of an expert upon mycology, purchased, near one of the markets in Washington, a quantity of fungi recognized by him as an edible mushroom. The plants were collected in Virginia about seven miles from the city of Washington. The following Sunday morning the count and his physician, a warm personal friend, breakfasted together upon these mushrooms, commenting upon their agreeable and even delicious flavor. Breakfast was concluded at half after eight and within fifteen minutes the count felt symptoms of serious illness. So rapid was the onset that by nine o'clock he was found prostrate on his bed, oppressed by the sense of impending doom. He rapidly developed blindness, trismus, difficulty in swallowing, and shortly lost consciousness. Terrific convulsions then supervened, so violent in character as to break the bed upon which he was placed. Despite rigorous treatment and the administration of morphine and atropine, the count never recovered consciousness and died on the day following the accident. The count's physician on returning to his office was also attacked, dizziness and ocular symptoms warning him of the nature of the trouble. Energetic treatment with apomorphine and atropine was at once instituted by his colleagues and for a period of five hours he lay in a state of coma with occasional periods of lucidity. The grave symptoms were ameliorated and recovery set in somewhere near seven o'clock in the evening. His convalescence was uneventful, his restoration to health complete, and he is, I believe, still living. On this instance the count probably identified the fungi as _caesaria_ or _aurantiaca_. From the symptoms and termination the species eaten must have been _muscaria_. _A. muscaria_ contains an alkaloidal substance which has a characteristic effect upon the nerve centers and to which the name muscarin and the provisional chemical formula C{5}H{15}NO{3} has been given. The drug atropin is a more or less perfect physiological antidote for muscarin and has been administered with success in cases of muscarin poisoning. It is said that the peasants in the Caucasus are in the habit of preparing from the fly _Amanita_ a beverage which they use for producing orgies of intoxication. Deaths are stated to occur frequently from excessive use of this beverage.[25]