The alkaloid failing to save the two that died I think can be attributed to one of two causes, or probably both:
1. That the use of atropine was begun too late and not used heroically enough.
2. That so much of the poison was taken up by the system in these cases that it became too virulent to counteract.
From the history of the cases I know they ate by far the largest quantity. My opinion leans towards the first probable cause I have mentioned.
Another fact worth stating here is that the pupils never became affected by the administration of these doses.
Hoping this will make the matter satisfactory, I remain
Yours truly, J. E. Shadle.
The interval between the ingestion and the symptoms is, therefore, a most important aid in the diagnosis of a case of mushroom poisoning; and in the event of an Amanita, heretofore absolutely fatal, it is presumably under the control of medical science, now that the deadly toxic principle has at last found its enemy in the neutralizing properties of the equally deadly atropine.
It would seem, moreover, from the severe personal experience of Mr. Julius A. Palmer, that the poison of the Amanita is quite capable of mischief without being taken into the digestive organs. So volatile is this dangerous alkaloid that it may produce violent effects upon the system either through its odor alone, or by simple contact with the skin and consequent absorption.
Mr. Palmer, in his before-mentioned article in the Moniteur Scientifique, Paris, relates the following experiences: