The Seven Sisters of Sleep (Amanita chapter)

Chapter VII — Amanita

In such a land, there is little hope of cultivating poppy, tobacco, betel, coca, hemp, or thorn-apple; and the poor native would have been compelled to have glided into his grave without a glimpse of Paradise beforehand, if, on the one hand, the kindly Russian pedlar had not found a way to smuggle a little bad spirits into the country, to the great annoyance of all quietly-disposed persons, or, on the other, nature had not promptly supplied an indigenous narcotic, in the form of an unpretending-looking fungus or toadstool, to stimulate the dormant energies of the dwellers in this region of ice and snow.

That some kinds of mushrooms are poisonous is a truth of which every farm labourer seems aware. But that some of those which have been reputed poisonous are inert, is beyond their philosophy, and only receives at present the sanction of some of the more scientific, who have directed their studies thitherward. The fly agaric is one of those justly-reputed poisonous species, occasionally found in this country, but which grows plentifully in Kamtschatka and Siberia. A recent author of an account of Russia states, "that mushrooms virulently poisonous in one country are eaten with safety in another, is well known in other cases; as for instance, in that of the fly mushroom (Amanita muscaria), which is common in England, and always poisonous there, while in Kamtschatka it is used as a frequent article of food." Then he inquires into the reasons wherefore this should be the case: — "It is not enough to say that difference of soil and climate explain the mystery; for though we know that culture changes the properties of plants, converting what is poisonous in the wild state into a wholesome esculent when raised in the garden — as in the case of the common celery, for example — yet throughout the whole of the vegetable kingdom we find almost no other instance of a plant which is poisonous in one country becoming wholesome, without culture, when transplanted to another, and left entirely to itself, and in both placed in apparently the same circumstances as to soil, &c. After all, a great part of the secret may lie, not in the plant, but in the mode of preparing it for the table. So far as we can judge, the Russian cook, on first cutting up these spoils of the forest, makes a much more copious use of salt than is done with us; and the efficacy of this agent in deadening the poisonous quality, is sufficiently proved by the melancholy case recorded in medical treatises, of a French officer and his wife, both of whom died in thirty-two hours after eating certain mushrooms, while the person who supplied them, and his whole family, made a hearty and wholesome meal from the same gathering." In this case, it appears that while the former took them without addition, the latter first salted them strongly, and then squeezed them well before using them. M. Roques says distinctly that this plant has not its poisonous properties modified by any climate. The Czar Alexis lost his life by eating this mushroom. The details of its effects upon the Kamtschatkans by Krasheninnikov, in his natural history of that country, are explicit, respecting the delirious intoxication induced by it. Gmelin and Pallas also equally certifying its intoxicating powers. Roques reports seven different sets of observations respecting its deleterious effects on man.

Unless we accept some such explanation of the phenomena as this, how can we reconcile the fact of their being eaten by the Russians without injury, whilst, on the authority of Dr. Christison, we have such a fatal case as the following, from eating the same kind of fungus, the growth of the same country and climate. Several French soldiers in Russia ate a large quantity of Amanita muscaria, some were not taken ill for six hours and upwards. Four of them who were very powerful men thought themselves safe, because, while their companions were already suffering, they themselves felt perfectly well and refused to take emetics. In the evening they began to complain of anxiety, a sense of suffocation, frequent fainting, burning thirst, and violent gripes. The pulse became small and irregular, and the body bedewed with cold sweat, the lineaments of the countenance were singularly changed, the nose and lips acquiring a violet tint, they trembled much, the belly swelled, and a profuse diarrhoea followed. The extremities soon became livid and cold, and the pain of the abdomen intense, delirium ensued, and all the four died. Two of the others suffered coma for twenty-four hours.

This proves that the mushroom in question is possessed of undoubtedly poisonous properties, which are fatal in their effects, unless counteracted or dispelled by the method of preparing them for the table. That this method is known to the Russians and to some other nations, and is believed to consist in well saturating the fungi with salt before cooking them. The Muscovite seems to have no greater dread of ill effects from the fly agaric than has the Brazilian from his cassava or mandioca flour, which is prepared from the equally poisonous root of the mandioca plant, the deleterious qualities of which are destroyed by the heat used in its preparation. Dr. Pouchet of Rouen seems to have clearly proved that the poisonous property of the fly agaric [and, apparently, of Agaricus venenatus — the printed text is unclear here] may be entirely removed by boiling them in water. A quart of water in which five plants had been boiled for fifteen minutes, killed a dog in eight hours; and, again, another in a day; but the boiled fungi themselves had no effect at all on two other dogs; and a third which had been fed for two months on little else than boiled amanitas, not only sustained no harm, but actually got fat on the fare. Pouchet is inclined to think that the whole poisonous plants of the family are similarly circumstanced.

The most singular circumstance connected with the history of this fungus, is the place it occupies as a substitute for those narcotics known in other parts of the world, and which an ungenial northern climate fails to produce. What the coca is to the Bolivian, and opium to the Chinese — the areca to the Malay, and haschisch to the African — the tobacco to the inhabitants of Europe and America, and the thorn-apple to those of the Andes — is the fly agaric to the natives of Siberia and Kamtschatka. Why it has been called by this name has arisen from its use as a fly poison. Never having seen those dipterous insects while under its influence, we cannot detail the symptoms it produces.

This poisonous fungus has some resemblance to the one generally eaten in this country, yet there are also striking points of difference. As, for instance, the gills are white instead of pinkish red, inclining to brown, and the cap or pileus, which is rather flat, is generally of a livid red colour, sprinkled with angular lighter coloured warts. These are distinctions broad enough to prevent any one having the use of his eyes, and who has ever seen the edible mushroom, being deceived into the belief that the fungus thus briefly described is identical with the delicacy of our English tables.

These fungi are collected by those who indulge in them narcotically, during the hot, or rather summer months, and afterwards hung up to dry in the open air. Or they may be left to ripen and dry in the ground, and are afterwards collected. When left standing until they are dried, they are said to possess more powerful narcotic properties than when dried artificially. The juice of the whortleberry in which this substance has been steeped, acquires thereby the intoxicating properties of strong wine.

The method of using this singular substance is to roll it up in the form of a bolus and swallow it without any mastication, as one would swallow a large pill. It is swallowed thus on principle, not that its flavour would be unpleasant, as compound colocynth might be when masticated, but because it is stated to agree ill with the stomach when that operation is performed. Nature is jealous of her rights, and it would appear from experience, that the gastronomic regions expect to receive all other supplies well triturated, except these — amanita and pill colocynth — which are both expected equally alike to arrive at the regions below without mutilation.

A day's intoxication may thus be procured at the expense of one good sized bolus, compounded of one large or two small toadstools; and this intoxication is affirmed to be, not only cheap, which is a consideration, but also remarkably pleasant. It commences an hour or so after the bolus has been swallowed.

The effects which this singular narcotic produces are, some of them, similar to that produced by intoxicating liquors; others resemble the effects of haschisch. At first, it generally produces cheerfulness, afterwards giddiness and drunkenness, ending occasionally in the entire loss of consciousness. The natural inclinations of the individual become stimulated. The dancer executes a pas d'extravagance, the musical indulge in a song, the chatterer divulges all his secrets, the oratorical delivers himself of a philippic, and the mimic indulges in caricature. Erroneous impressions of size and distance are common occurrences, equally with the swallower of amanita and hemp. The experiences of M. Moreau with haschisch are repeated with the fungus-eaters of Siberia; a straw lying in the road becomes a formidable object, to overcome which, a leap is taken sufficient to clear a barrel of ale, or the prostrate trunk of a British oak.

But this is not the only extraordinary circumstance connected therewith. There is the property imparted to the fluid excretions, of rendering it intoxicating, which property it retains for a considerable time. A man having been intoxicated on one day, and slept himself sober by the next, will, by drinking this liquor, to the extent of about a cupful, become as intoxicated thereby as he was before. Confirmed drunkards in Siberia preserve their excretionary fluid as a precious liquor, to be used in case a scarcity of the fungus should occur. This intoxicating property may be again communicated to every person who partakes of the disgusting draught, and thus, also, with the third, and fourth, and even the fifth distillation.

[A digression on the sailors' slang term "sucking the monkey," and a later discussion of the chemistry of Amanitine and unrelated cases of accidental mushroom poisoning in England, are omitted.]