Unless we accept some such explanation of the phenomena as this, how can we reconcile the fact of their being eaten by the Russians without injury, whilst, on the authority of Dr. Christison, we have such a fatal case as the following, from eating the same kind of fungus, the growth of the same country and climate. Several French soldiers in Russia ate a large quantity of _Amanita muscaria_, some were not taken ill for six hours and upwards. Four of them who were very powerful men thought themselves safe, because, while their companions were already suffering, they themselves felt perfectly well and refused to take emetics. In the evening they began to complain of anxiety, a sense of suffocation, frequent fainting, burning thirst, and violent gripes. The pulse became small and irregular, and the body bedewed with cold sweat, the lineaments of the countenance were singularly changed, the nose and lips acquiring a violet tint, they trembled much, the belly swelled, and a profuse diarrhœa followed. The extremities soon became livid and cold, and the pain of the abdomen intense, delirium ensued, and all the four died. Two of the others suffered coma for twenty-four hours. This proves that the mushroom in question is possessed of undoubtedly poisonous properties, which are fatal in their effects, unless counteracted or dispelled by the method of preparing them for the table. That this method is known to the Russians and to some other nations, and is believed to consist in well saturating the fungi with salt before cooking them. The Muscovite seems to have no greater dread of ill effects from the fly agaric than has the Brazilian from his cassava or mandioca flour, which is prepared from the equally poisonous root of the mandioca plant, the deleterious qualities of which are destroyed by the heat used in its preparation. Dr. Pouchet of Rouen seems to have clearly proved that the poisonous property of the fly agaric and _a venenata_ may be entirely removed by boiling them in water. A quart of water in which five plants had been boiled for fifteen minutes, killed a dog in eight hours; and, again, another in a day; but the boiled fungi themselves had no effect at all on two other dogs; and a third which had been fed for two months on little else than boiled amanitas, not only sustained no harm, but actually got fat on the fare.[37] Pouchet is inclined to think that the whole poisonous plants of the family are similarly circumstanced.