e states also that the proportion of poison in the
mushroom varies with the weather, location, and age of the mushroom. The
inhabitants of Russia do not eat this mushroom, but in Germany it is
eaten dried or when perfectly fresh, after cooking, and after the first
water in which it is boiled is removed.

Helvellic acid is not found in Morchella _esculenta_ (the true Morel),
nor is it known to exist in any other species except G. _esculenta_. It
has been stated that there is no antidote for helvellic poisoning after
the symptoms have appeared.

A specimen of Gyromitra esculenta was forwarded to me from Portland,
Maine, by a member of a mycological club of that city, who stated that
this mushroom was quite abundant in the early spring in the woods near
Portland and that the plants were eaten by the members of the club,
_care being taken to use them only when perfectly fresh_. Indigestion
and nausea followed the eating of old specimens, but the general opinion
was "favorable to the Gyromitra as an addition to the table." (See page
6, part 2, of this series.)

Prof. Chas. H. Peck, of Albany, while placing this mushroom in his
edible list as one which he had repeatedly tested, advises that it
should be eaten only when perfectly fresh, as nausea and sickness had
been known to result from the eating of specimens which had been kept
twenty-four hours before cooking.

I forwarded a number of drawings of the American species of G.
_esculenta_, together with a dried specimen of the same received from
Maine, to Prof. Kobert, who identified both drawings and specimen as the
_Gyromitra esculenta_ of Fries, synonymous with the _Helvella esculenta_
of Persoon. Prof. Kobert also informs me that he finds the fresh G.
_esculenta_ perfectly harmless when freed of the water of the first
boiling. He says: "My wife and I eat it very often, when in fresh
condition, and after the first water in which it is boiled is poured
off." The active poisonous principle of this mushroom is the _helvellic
acid_, which is soluble in hot water. When the mushroom is gathered
fresh and _quickly dried_ it is then also innoxious. In this respect it
differs from the species _A. muscaria_, in which the poisonous alkaloid
_muscarin_ is not destroyed in the drying, but remains unchanged for
years in the dried mushroom.

The fact that there have been seemingly well-authenticated cases of
fatal poisoning in the eating of this mushroom shows that if used at
all i