This, washed and dried and then rubbed, gives odour
of savin.
_Test._--A watery solution of savin strikes deep green with perchloride
of iron, and if an infusion of the twigs has been taken the twigs may be
detected with the microscope. The twigs obtained from the stomach, dried
and rubbed between the finger and thumb, will give the odour of savin.
=Ergot= (_Secale Cornutum_).--A parasitic fungus attacking wheat,
barley, oats, and rye, which is reputed to have the power of causing
contraction of unstriped muscular fibre, especially that of the uterus.
_Symptoms._--Lassitude, headache, nausea, diarrhoea, anuria,
convulsions, coma. Small quantities frequently repeated have in the past
produced gangrene of the extremities, or anaesthesia of fingers and toes.
_Tests._--Lake-red colour with liquor potassae; this liquid filtered
gives a precipitate of same colour with nitric acid.
XLVII.--POISONOUS FUNGI AND TOXIC FOODS
=Fungi.=--Of the poisonous mushrooms, the _Amanita phalloides_ and the
fly agaric, or _Agaricus muscarius_, are the most potent. The active
principle of the former is _phallin_, and of the latter _muscarine_. The
_Amanita phalloides_ is distinguished from the common mushroom
(_Agaricus campestris_) by having permanent white gills and a hollow
stem.
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