There is a popular belief that Mushrooms which grow near iron, copper, or other metals, are deadly the same idea obtaining in the custom of putting a coin in the water used for boiling Mushrooms in order that it may attract and detach any poison, and so serve to make them wholesome.Įven the most poisonous species may be eaten with impunity after repeated maceration in salt and water, or vinegar and water-which custom is generally adopted in the South of Europe, where the diet of the poorer classes largely includes the fungi which they gather but when so treated the several Mushrooms lose much of their soluble nutritive qualities as well as their flavour. If "phalline" is the active poisonous principle, this is not rendered inert by heat in cooking but the helvellic acid of other sorts disappears during the process, and its fungi are thus made non-poisonous.
The poisonous kinds may be commonly recognised by their possessing permanently white gills which do not touch the stem and a thin ring, or frill, is borne by the stem at some distance from the top, whilst the bottom of the stem is surrounded by a loose sheath, or volva. Mushrooms were styled by Porphry deorum filii, and "without seed, as produced by the midwifery of autumnal thunderstorms, and portending the mischief which these cause." "They are generally reported to have something noxious in them, and not without reason but they were exalted to the second course of the Caesarean tables with the noble title 'bromatheon,' a dainty fit for the gods, to whom they sent the Emperor Claudius, as they have many since to the other world." "So true it is he who eats Mushrooms many times, nil amplius edit, eats no more of anything." "Argentum, atque aurum facile est laenamque togamque. Athenaeus quotes an author who said: "You will be choked like those who waste after eating mushrooms." The Romans also esteemed some fungi as of so exquisite a flavour that these would be stolen sooner than silver or gold by anyone entrusted with their delivery:. The Greeks were aware of edible fungi, and knew of injurious sorts which produced a sense of choking, whilst subsequent wasting of the body occurred.
Other edible Mushrooms which grow with us, and are even of a better quality than the above, are the Agaricus augustus and the Agaricus elvensis, not to mention the Chanatrelle, said to be unapproachable for excellence. This may be readily distinguished from any harmful fungus by the pink colour of its gills, the solidity of its stem, the fragrant anise-like odour which it possesses, and the separability of its outer skin. It may be first briefly stated that the Agaricus campestris, or field Mushroom, is the kind most commonly eaten in England, being highly nitrogenous, and containing much fat. Without giving descriptive attention to those Mushrooms ( Agarics, Boleti, and others) which are edible, and of which over a hundred may be enumerated, as beyond our purpose when treating of curative Herbal Simples, notice will be bestowed here on two productions of the Mushroom nature-the Puff Ball and the Fly Agaric,-because of their medicinal qualities.
0 kommentar(er)
