Edible and poisonous mushrooms : what to eat and what to avoid . With eighteen coloured plates illustrating forty-eight species / [M.C. Cooke] ; published under the direction of the General Literature Committee.

  • Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt), 1825-1914.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Edible and poisonous mushrooms : what to eat and what to avoid . With eighteen coloured plates illustrating forty-eight species / [M.C. Cooke] ; published under the direction of the General Literature Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be so modified by circumstances as to lose or acquire poisonous properties, has not been established. One of our most virulent native species has undoubtedly been eaten in Eussia with no disagreeable results, but there is no evidence that the character of the fungus had changed, whilst there is every reason to believe that the process of cooking adopted was calculated to produce such results. It is very probable that the poisonous principle existing in any fungus, as it is grown, may be neutralized by the use of acids or alkalies. Fungi of the mushroom type grow rapidly, and rapidly decay. Chemical change taking place so r.eadily, it is important that this class of food should be cooked as speedily as possible after it is gathered, before any appreciable change takes place. It is by no means certain that stale mushrooms are innocuous, and, in some cases where mush- rooms have been accused of producing unpleasant effects on delicate constitutions, it is possible that the cause was not in