_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.
NEUROTICS ACTING ON THE BRAIN AND PRODUCING DELIRIUM.
HYOSCYAMUS—BELLADONNA—STRAMONIUM—DATURA ALBA—NIGHTSHADE.
Most of these are not very important substances, as they have rarely been employed as poisons in this country. Serious symptoms have, however, resulted from their accidental use.
HENBANE (_Hyoscyamus niger_).—All parts of this plant are poisonous; but the seeds are more powerful than the root or leaves. In medicinal doses it is a feeble narcotic. It owes its powers to an alkaloid (_hyoscyamia_) it contains.
In very large doses henbane produces giddiness, flushings, excitement, and a sense of weight in the head; the limbs tremble, and there is general loss of power, the pupils get dilated, there is double vision, flashing of light before the eyes, and great drowsiness. If vomiting supervene these symptoms generally pass off; otherwise we may find fierce delirium, loss of speech, complete loss of power over the limbs, cold sweats, and exhaustion.
In some instances, when the roots have been eaten by mistake for parsnips, the symptoms have been those of drunkenness and delirium. Dr. Houlton states (_Lancet_, 6th July, 1844) that this error was committed one night at a monastery. The monks who partook of the roots had such hallucinations that the establishment resembled a lunatic asylum. They rang the bell for matins at midnight, and those who attended were unable to read, or they read that which was not in the book. In another reported case (_Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal_, p. 562, October, 1844), the roots were put into soup, of which nine persons partook. Although no unpleasant flavor was noticed at the time of eating, yet very shortly afterwards all complained of an acrid taste, nausea, indistinctness of vision, restlessness, delirium, and great somnolency, which continued some time.