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Mushrooms, Antidote to Poisonous

"All fungi should be used with caution, for even the champignon, and edible garden mushrooms, possess deleterious qualities, when grown in certain places. All the edible species should be thoroughly masticated before being taken into the stomach, as this greatly lessens the effect of poisons. When accidents of this sort happen, vomiting should be immediately excited, and then the vegetable acids should be given--either vinegar, lemon-juice, or that of apples; after which, give ether and anti-spasmodic remedies, to stop the excessive bilious vomiting. Infusions of gall-nut, oak-bark, and Peruvian bark are recommended as capable of neutralizing the poisonous principle of mushrooms. It is, however, the safest way not to eat any of the good but less common kinds until they have been soaked in vinegar. Spirit of wine and vinegar extract some part of their poison, and tannin matter decomposes the greatest part of it."--"Botanist's Companion." In Poland and Russia there are above thirty edible sorts of fungi in common use among the peasantry. They are gathered in all the different stages of their growth, and used in various ways--raw, boiled, stewed, roasted; and being hung up and dried in their stoves or chimneys, form a part of their winter stock of provisions.