t should be eaten _only when the conditions essential to safety are
most carefully observed_, and as these mushrooms show varying qualities,
according to local conditions of soil and climate, etc., amateurs
finding it in localities where it has not been heretofore used should
proceed tentatively and with much care before venturing to eat it
freely.

POISONOUS AND DELETERIOUS MUSHROOMS OF THE LACTAR, RUSSULA, AND BOLETUS
GROUPS.

Lactarius _torminosus_ Fries contains in its milky juice an acrid resin
which causes inflammation of the stomach and of the alimentary canal.
When parboiled and the first water removed, it has been eaten without
injurious effects. Lactarius _plumbeus_ Bull., Lactarius _uvidus_ Fries,
Lactarius _turpis_ Weinn., and Lactarius _pyrogalus_ Bull., all acrid
mushrooms, according to Kobert, are similarly poisonous.

Of the "Erdschieber" (Lactarius _vellereus_) and the "Pfefferling"
(Lactarius piperatus Scop.) Kobert says they are eaten in parts of
Russia and in some places in Germany, but that neither is very safe.

There is a species of _Russula_ (R. _emetica_) very common in woods,
easily recognized by its smooth scarlet top, white gills, and white stem
and by its biting acridity, which, though recorded as poisonous by some
authors, is considered edible by others. This mushroom, R. _emetica_,
has been subjected to chemical analysis by Kobert, who finds in it
_muscarin_, _cholin_, and _pilz-atropin_ in varying proportions. Kobert
states that in Germany it is "_rightly_" considered poisonous, though
eaten in Russia, and ascribes the fact that it is not deemed poisonous
in the latter country to the manner in which it is there prepared, the
poisonous alkaloid being in greater part eliminated by parboiling the
mushrooms, and not merely pouring off the water, but carefully squeezing
it out of the parboiled fungi.

To the presence in this mushroom of the neutralizing alkaloid
"pilz-atropin" in varying proportions may also be attributed in some
measure the safety with which it has been eaten under certain
conditions. R. foetens and other acrid Russulas, as well as Lactars,
have been known to produce severe gastro-enteritis.

Considering the foregoing, it would seem the part of prudence at least
to avoid such of the Lactars and Russulas as have an acrid or peppery
taste.

I think it would be a wise precaution to pour off the water of the first
boiling in the case of all mushrooms about which there