or. I was wondering whether it
would not be possible to obtain from it a sort of Liebig's extract of
fungus, which would be useful in cooking. With this purpose, I had some
of these mushrooms cut into small pieces and boiled, on the one hand, in
plain water and, on the other, in water with bicarbonate of soda
added. The treatment lasted two whole days. The flesh of the bolete was
indomitable. To attack it, I should have had to employ violent drugs,
which were inadmissible in view of the result to be attained.

What prolonged boiling and the aid of bicarbonate of soda leave almost
intact the fly's grubs quickly turn into fluid, even as the flesh worms
fluidify hard-boiled white of egg. This is done in each instance without
violence, probably by means of a special pepsin, which is not the same
in both cases. The liquefier of meat has its own brand; the liquefier
of the bolete has another sort. The plate, then, is filled with a dark,
running gruel, not unlike tar in appearance. If we allow evaporation
free course, the broth sets, into a hard, easily crumbled slab,
something like toffee. Caught in this matrix, grubs and pupa perish,
incapable of freeing themselves. Analytical chemistry has proved fatal
to them. The conditions are quite different when the attack is delivered
on the surface of the ground. Gradually absorbed by the soil, the excess
of liquid disappears, leaving the colonists free. In my dishes, it
collects indefinitely, killing the inhabitants when it dries up into a
solid layer.

The purple bolete (Boletus purpureus, FRIES), when subjected to the
action of the maggots, gives the same result as the Satanic bolete,
namely, a black gruel. Note that both mushrooms turn blue if broken and
especially if crushed. With the edible bolete, whose flesh invariably
remains white when cut, the product of its liquefaction by the vermin is
a very pale brown. With the oronge, or imperial mushroom, the result is
a broth which the eye would take for a thin apricot jam. Tests made
with sundry other mushrooms confirm the rule: all, when attacked by the
maggot, turn into a more or less fluid mess, which varies in color.

Why do the two boletes with the red tubes, the purple bolete and the
satanic bolete, change into a dark gruel? I have an inkling of the
reason. Both of them turn blue, with an admixture of green. A third
species, the bluish bolete (Boletus cyanescens, BULL., var. lacteus,
LEVEILLE), possess remarkable color sens