Poisonous Forest Mushroom. Fig. 14.
(Agaricus [Entoloma] sinuatus.)212.
Without doubt, this is a very poisonous plant, for I once cooked a very small piece of a specimen for luncheon, and was very nearly poisoned to death thereby.
I did not eat a twentieth part of the specimen gathered—I am sure not so much as a quarter of an ounce—and the taste was by no means disagreeable. But mark the result. (It must be borne in mind, too, that though I fell so dangerously ill, I never till the last moment suspected the fungus. Such a confirmed toadstool-eater was I, that I laid my symptoms to anything but the true cause.)
About a quarter of an hour after luncheon I left home, and was immediately overtaken by a strange nervous, gloomy, low-spirited feeling quite new to me. Soon a severe headache added its charms to my feelings, and then swimming of the brain commenced, with violent pains in the stomach.
I had now great difficulty to keep upon my legs at all; my senses all appeared leaving me, and every object appeared to be moving with death-like stillness from side to side, up and down, or round and round.
More dead than alive, I soon returned home, and was horrified to find two others (whom I had invited to partake of my repast) in exactly the same condition as myself. At this moment, and not before, I thought of Agaricus sinuatus. These two others had suffered precisely as I had done, and we all three were apparently dying fast. They, however, were attacked by violent vomiting, which I imagine helped to hasten their recovery; for after a few days of sickness and nausea (with medical assistance) they got well; but it was not so with me; for although I had at first the inclination, I had not the strength left to vomit. During the latter part of the first day I was, however, so continually and fearfully purged, and suffered so much from headache and swimming of the brain, that I really thought every moment would be my last.
I was very ill for the next four or five days; suffered from loathing and lassitude; fell into deep sleep, long and troubled; at times found all my joints quite stiff; at others, found everything swimming before me; and it was not till a fortnight had elapsed that every bodily derangement had left me.
Fig. 14 is a portrait of the plant in question, taken before the culinary operations were commenced. No one, after seeing this picture, can fail to recognize the thing itself if found. It is large, has dull flesh-coloured gills, the top is a little downy, it smells like meal, and grows in woods.
It can always be found sparingly in autumn in the woods north of London.