CHAPTER II
Mushroom Poisoning
Symptoms—Treatment—How to Tell Mushrooms—The Common Kind—Other Varieties—The Edible Puffball—Poisonous Mushrooms Frequently Mistaken.
MUSHROOM POISONING.—Vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, pains in legs; possibly confusion, as if drunk, stupidity, followed by excitement, and perhaps convulsions. Lips and face may be blue. Pulse may be weak.
First Aid Rule 1.—Rid the stomach and bowels of remaining poison. Give emetic of mustard, tablespoonful in three glasses of warm water, unless vomiting is already excessive. When vomiting ceases, give tablespoonful of castor oil, or compound cathartic pill. Give no salts. Also empty bowels with injection of tablespoonful of glycerin in pint of warm soapsuds and water.
Rule 2.—Antidote the poison. Give a cup of strong coffee and fifteen drops of tincture of belladonna to adult. Repeat both once, after two hours have passed.
Rule 3.—Rest and stimulate. Put patient to bed. Give whisky, a tablespoonful in twice as much water. Give tincture of digitalis, ten drops every two hours, till two or three doses are taken by adult.
Symptoms.—Vomiting and diarrhea come on in a few hours to half a day, with cramps in the stomach and legs. The face and lips may grow blue. There is great prostration. In the case of poisoning by the fly amanita, stupor may appear early, the patient acting as if drunk, and difficult breathing may be a noticeable symptom. Afterwards the patient becomes excited and convulsions develop. The pulse becomes weak and slow. The patient may die in a few hours, or may linger for three or four days. If treatment be thorough, recovery may result.
Treatment.—Unless vomiting has already been excessive, the patient should receive a tablespoonful of mustard mixed with a glassful of tepid water. After the vomiting ceases he should receive a tablespoonful of castor oil, or any cathartic except salts. If the cathartic is vomited, he should receive an injection into the rectum of a tablespoonful of glycerin mixed with a pint of soapsuds and water. Coffee and atropine (or belladonna) are the best antidotes.
If a physician be secured, he will probably give a hypodermic injection of atropine. If a physician is not procurable, the patient should receive a cup of strong coffee, and a dose of ten or fifteen drops of tincture of belladonna in a tablespoonful of water, if an adult. This dose should be repeated once after the lapse of two hours. The patient should be kept in bed, a bedpan being used when the bowels move.