POISONOUS MUSHROOMS.

1100 but the sufferers both died within a few hours of each other. Three cats which are said to have licked up the vomited matter likewise died. Perhaps, continues the reporter, the peculiarly tempestuous character of the present autumn may have had an intensifying effect on the In tropical tøxic properties of the mushroom family. as is well countries, known, many plants develop an activity of secretion far exceeding their habit in temperate regions. According to this hypothesis special precautions should be taken in stormy weather to establish the innocuousness of an agaric before using it for food, but apparently this year careless gatherers have been more numerous than ever. In of the cases conditions are present which lead to an easy order to familiarise the public with the appearance of delcescape of blood from the vessels by producing changes either terious fungi an apothecary resident in one of the districts in the blood, in the vessels, or in both : among them may be where fatal cases have been numerous conceived the happy mentioned advanced age, alcoholism, and the presence of idea of exhibiting specimens of all the indigenous varieties in his shop window so that passers-by might look and learn. - severe constitutional diseases, of which nephritis and rheumatism are the most prominent; (5) that, as in cases of simple This example could be imitated with advantage; and if serous effusion, the prognosis must be individualised and space failed for the exhibit, surely the familiar jars of based on the underlying causes and the general condition coloured water might be sacrificed. Lay journalists, sayss of the patient, but that taken as a whole from the the anonymous but witty writer in conclusion, are in the frequent association of other diseases the prognosis is habit of offering more or less sagacious advice on mushroom graver than in simple pleurisies, yet a very considerable poisoning and its treatment, thereby laying themselves open number completely recover; (6) that except when it to the charge of practising medicine illegally. These appears as a complication in the later stages of some gentlemen would do well to remember the old adage, " ne other disease a haemorrhagio effusion may be expected sutor ultra crepidam." to run a favourable course, as in a majority of the cases the chest does not refill after operation, which may, "A CASE OF ABSENCE OF THE THYMUS GLAND IN AN INFANT." however, have to be repeated once or twice; (7) that, as in serous a certain of will cases simple pleurisies, proportion ALL anatomists are agreed that absence of the thymus eventuate in empyema, but that there seems to be no special gland is an exceedingly rare event ; in fact, many writers tendency toward this result ; and (8) that in the occasional have denied that this organ has ever been found wanting. cases where the chest rapidly refills aspiration should not So constantly is it present that Hangstedsaid, "Inter conbe repeated too frequently lest more harm result to the stantissima hominum organa est thymus," but even this patient from the loss of blood than from the presence of the writer that he has found it absent in

following propositions justified: (1) hasmorrbagic pleurisy may occur either as I, .a primary affection or as a complication arising in the I, course of other diseases; (2) that as in other forms of ’I ,pleurisy tuberculosis is the etiological factor in a very con- ’, siderable number of cases, yet the proportion due to other ’ causes is so large that the mere fact of its hæmorrhagic ’, character does not justify a diagnosis of tuberculosis, even "in the absence of cancer, without corroborating evidence; (3) that among other causes the pneumococcus takes a prominent rank, but other micro-organisms occasionally are found as the infecting agent ; (4) that in a large proportion embodied in statistical form, but the

possible,

seem

li

I

-

acknowledges

fuid. ___

POISONOUS

MUSHROOMS.

OUR correspondent at Rome has drawn attention to the - calamitous frequency of mushroom poisoning in Italy, and unfortunately these regrettable accidents seem to be

equally prevalent in France. On all sides, says a writer Progres Médical, fatal cases of mushroom poisoning At Talaudiere, near Saint Etienne, two are reported.

in Le

children have succumbed, and a man has been carried hospital in a hopeless condition. At Saint Chamond a housewife died after three days of intense suffering. At Lyons two inhabitants of Montplaisir were in a critical state. At Valence the wife of an eating-house keeper, in whose establishment several cases of poisoning have occurred, has just died ; and at Montmiral, in the same neighbourhood, a farmer, his wife, and a servant barely escaped death thanks to powerful emetics, which, however, proved insufficient to save a boy aged thirteen years who had shared their repast. From Belfort we hear that a man having gathered some mushrooms in the forest ate them in company with his son and a friend. All three presented symptoms of poisoning almost immediately; the son died on Tuesday, the friend the following day, and the father himself was not expected to survive. A family living at Tarbes, consisting of a father, mother, and four children, partook of a dish of mushrooms with tomatoes on Aug. 28th. The next day all showed signs of poisoning and in spite of medical aid the parents and one child died during the night. The three remaining children recovered. named At Saint Seine-en-Bache a married couple Simonin, who for fifty years had been engaged in the mushroom trade, consumed part of their stock one evening and the same night were seized with violent pain and vomiting. A medical man did all that was to

acephalic

in this stateit has been found abnormally large. T. L. von Bischoff has recorded absence in a well-developed stillborn child.4 Alex. Friedleben met with this condition in four cases ; one was a fœtus at full term, but the others were children who had reached the age of five years in two cases and six years in the other ; they had shown no symptoms which could be attributed to the absence of the gland.5 The same observer found the thymus gland wanting in a hedgehog four months old. The fact that the absence of this gland has been so seldom noticed may be in part, at least, due to the fact that it is not often looked for. The symptoms in the case recorded by Mr. Clark in another part of our present issue are of great interest in connexion with the difficult subject of the functions of the organ.

monsters,2 and several other observers concur ment.3 Curiously, in anencephalic monsters

its

CATARACT IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. SURGEON-MAJOR POPE, who is the chief of the Ophthalmic Hospital, Madras, has just issued a little brochure giving the results of his operations for cataract upon the natives of India and others. He has had the advantage of having had under his care eighty beds. He finds that the Hindus are good subjects for the operation, the non-flesh-eating being cleanly in their habits, particular in regard to their food, and, as a rule, enjoying good health. The normal eye of the Brahmin, he remarks, is a typically fine organ, "its different structures are of a fine texture, its appearance is bright and clear, and operations, when 1 Hangsted: Thymi in Homine ac per Seriem Animalium Descriptio,

p. 9.

2 Loc. cit., p. 166. Anatomie der Kopflosen Missgeburten, p. 77. Von Bischoff : Entwicklungsgeschichte der Säugethiere und des 3

4

Gergens :

Menschen, p. 290. 5

A. Friedleben : Die

Physiologie der Thymusdrüse, p. 41.