| Edible. | Poisonous. |
|---|---|
| 1. Grow solitary in dry airy | 1. Grow in clusters in woods |
| places. | and dark damp places. |
| 2. Generally white or brownish. | 2. Usually with bright colours. |
| 3. Have a compact, brittle | 3. The flesh tough, soft, and |
| flesh. | watery. |
| 4. Do not change colour by the | 4. Acquire a brown, green, or |
| action of the air when cut. | blue tint when cut and |
| exposed to the air. | |
| 5. Juice watery. | 5. Juice often milky. |
| 6. Odour agreeable. | 6. Odour commonly powerful |
| and disagreeable. | |
| 7. Taste not bitter, acrid, salt, | 7. Have an acrid, astringent, |
| or astringent. | acid, salt, or bitter taste. |
Symptoms.—Two sets of symptoms may follow the use of mushrooms as food—those of irritant and those of narcotic poisoning. In the latter class, giddiness, double vision, and even delirium, have been present. Nausea, vomiting, purging, and convulsions characterise those of the former class. In some cases the individual has presented all the appearances of intoxication.
Post-mortem Appearances.—These will depend to a great extent upon the character of the symptoms prior to death. If signs of irritation have been present, inflammation of the stomach and bowels will most probably be found; but if, on the other hand, narcotic symptoms were predominant, congestion of the vessels of the brain will most likely be present. Arsenic and other poisons have been mixed with mushrooms with intent to kill; the probability of this occurring should be borne in mind, and a rigid examination of the contents of the stomach made in all doubtful cases.
Treatment.—Castor-oil and emetics, atropine hypodermically.
NITROBENZENE, OR
ESSENCE OF MIRBANE
This substance, prepared by acting on benzene by nitric acid, is largely used for flavouring sweets, &c. Nitrobenzene is a heavy, yellow, oily substance with a strong odour of bitter-almond oil, from which, however, it differs by undergoing no change of colour when agitated with strong sulphuric acid. The natural oil acquires a fine crimson colour when treated with strong sulphuric acid.
Symptoms.—These may not make their appearance for three or four hours after the poison is swallowed or inhaled. The vapour is more powerful than the liquid. In some cases which have been described, the patient has complained of feeling drunk, with pain in the head, giddiness, faintness, distorted vision, drowsiness, ending in coma and death. The face is flushed, the jaws sometimes spasmodically closed, and the lips livid. Vomiting then supervenes, the vomited matters having the odour of bitter almonds. Symptoms not unlike those produced by prussic acid or the essential oil of bitter almonds have been noticed in one or two cases; but, as a rule, the insensibility is not immediate, as in prussic acid poisoning, and in this fact lies the distinction between the two substances. Rapidly fatal cases might be mistaken for apoplexy, but the odour betrays the cause of death.
Post-mortem Appearances.—Nothing very characteristic is found after death due to this poison. The blood is sometimes black and fluid and gives the spectrum of acid hæmatin, the lungs congested, and the liver of a purple colour. The blood, contents of the stomach, and even the tissues, may smell strongly of this substance.
Chemical Analysis.—Nitrobenzene may be separated by distilling the organic mixture with sulphuric acid, when the distillate will contain the poison if present. It is converted into aniline by heating it with acetic acid and iron filings. (See test for aniline, infra.) On account of its odour, the only substance with which it can be confounded is the essential oil of bitter almonds, which owes its poisonous properties to the prussic acid it contains.
The following Table may assist in its Detection.