DARNEL SEEDS (_Lolium temulentum_).—The seeds of this plant, which is often found growing with corn crops, when accidentally mixed in considerable quantity with wheat or rye, and ground into flour, have caused gastric pain, severe giddiness, vomiting, and other symtoms of intoxication. The sufferers complained that everything seemed of a green color. A wet season is said to encourage the growth of darnel with the varieties of corn. CAMPHOR.—This substance is very variable in its action. It has given rise to alarming symptoms on some occasions, and once it has destroyed life. In scruple and half-drachm doses, it seems to have produced giddiness, difficulty in walking, dimness of sight, difficulty of breathing, delirium, and insensibility. The stomach-pump or emetics must be employed. If the effects are not very severe they will generally cease spontaneously after a time. The odor would lead to the detection of the poison. FUNGI.—According to Berkeley there are now upwards of 2380 recognised species of British fungi, a considerable proportion of which are doubtless poisonous. But the type of the class may be taken as the Amanita muscaria. This is an autumn fungus of an orange-red color, and is used among the Siberian tribes, especially the Koraks, as an intoxicating agent, and produces symptoms somewhat similar to those of alcohol. The Agaricus campestris and esculentus are those most frequently used as articles of food, on account of their savory properties; but even these are indigestible. They occasionally produce diarrhœa, with a pruriginous or exanthematous rash in dyspeptics; and should only be eaten in great moderation. _Ketchup_, the juice of the mushroom flavored with salt and spices, has produced faintness, nausea and colic, lasting for some hours. There are some positive characters by which the wholesome fungi can be distinguished from the unwholesome. Moreover those which may be eaten with impunity by some individuals prove destructive to others. Thus, a French officer and his wife died from breakfasting off mushrooms which others in the house ate without inconvenience. As a general rule highly colored mushrooms, with an astringent styptic taste, a forbidding pungent odor, and which grow in dark and shady places, should be avoided. The symptoms produced by poisonous fungi are not unfrequently those indicative of gastro-intestinal irritation, with a disordered condition of the nervous system, and considerable depression; but, again, they may act much more like pure narcotics. In treating these case, the stomach and intestines must be thoroughly emptied, and then the prominent symptoms are to be relieved according to their urgency. CHAPTER XXV. DELIRANTS. NEUROTICS ACTING ON THE BRAIN AND PRODUCING DELIRIUM. HYOSCYAMUS—BELLADONNA—STRAMONIUM—DATURA ALBA—NIGHTSHADE.