A FAMILY WIPED OUT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8981, 15 November 1907, Page 3

A FAMILY WIPED OUT.

FATAL FUNGUS MISTAKEN FOR MUSHROOMS. A deadly fungus, mistaken for mushrooms, has caused the deaths of six members of one family at Ipswich, only one of seven who tasted the fungup bsing now alive. The survivor, indeed, owes his life to the fact that after putting some of the fungus in his mouth he spat it out again. The family which has thus been poetically wiped out, is that of Samuel Farrow, a middle-aged man, who, though well-accustomed to handling mushrooms, gathered the fungi which caused the calamity. The victims are Farrow himself, his wife Laura, aged 44, his daughters, Laura 16, and Mabel 15, and two sons aged 5 and 3. The survivor is Charles Farrow, 17. The father gathered the supposed mushrooms in a woody dell close by the road, about midway between VVoodbridge and Ipswich, where thousands of fungi are still to be iound. Few people would have imagined them to be mushrooms, and it is a wonder the deceased was not put upon his guard when his son expressed a doubt as to what they were. The mother, two sons, and a daughter died in great agony, on the day after eating the fungi. The father suffered terribly, and threw himself about his bed like a wounded animal. At last, after three days of terrible agony, his struggles ceased, and he expired. The girl Laura but shortly after the death of her father mercifully lost consciousness. The violent physical upheaval produced by the poison still continued, and she rolled about to such an extent that she had to be held down, or she would have fallen off the bed. She died a few hours after her father. At the inquest on the first four victims the principal witness was Charles Farrow, who was with his father when the supposed mushrooms were gathered. He said that he helped to gathtr them, but he said to his father that he did not think they were mushrooms. His father repkijpd, "Do you think, when I have gathered mushrooms all my life, 1 don't know a mushroom when I see it?" After the mushrooms had been put on to cook witness went out. and returned about half-past nine at night. His mother said they had saved some mushrooms for him, and he got them out of the cupboard. He did not like the smell of them, but put a piece in his mouth and spat it out again. He said he should not eat them, and his mother then ate them, giving his sister Laura some. Next morning all began to vomit, and had severe pains, but a doctor was not fetched until evening. Mr Frank Woolnough, curator of Ipswich Museum, being shown specimens of the fungus gathered by the police under the guidance of Charles Farrow, declared that they were examples of garacus philloides, and were a deadly poison. A portion of one eaten meant almost certain death. He could not understand how anyone knowing anything of mushrooms could mistake these for the edible variety. Evidence was given by another son of Farrow and a neighbour that the father was well accustomed to handling mushrooms. He had gathered bushels of them, and Mrs Farrow had made them into ketchup, which she sold. The son Charles, recalled, and asked why he did not express his doubts about the mushrooms at home before they were eaten, said that he thought his father ought to know better than ,bim. The inquest was adjourned for for a post-mortem examination. Between seven and eight thousand persons wiinessed the burial in Ipswich Cemetery of the first four victims of the tragedy. The three children were placed i-i one grave, and the mother in another beside it, and in the latter Farrow, the father, and the grown-up daughter were interred next day. The three surviving sons were much affected, and one of them fainted in the carriage on the way ot the cemetery.

Cases of "mushroom" poisoning are not infrequent, but the exercise of a.little care is all that is usually necessary to distinguish between the genuine mushroom and its many imitators. There are nearly a thousand of different fungi in Britain more or less resembling mushrooms, and some of them are quite eatable. But the prudent, non-expert gatherer will keep to the true mushroom, which possesses these characteristics--Grows only in pastures. Is of small size, dry, and with firm white flesh. Skin readily peels away. ■The cap has a frill. The gills are free from the stem, the spores brown, black or deep purple black in colour, and the stem solid or slightly pithy, with a clothy ring round the middle. The gills under the cap are at first white, then rose-coloured, and at length brown black.

When all these characteristics are taken together, as the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" points out, no other fungus can be confounded with the mushroom. It should always be noted whether the fungi to be consumed are in a fresh and wholesome condition, otherwise they act as a poison in precisely the same way as would any other semi-putrid vegetable or bad meat. Highly poisonous "mushrooms" sometimes invade mushroom beds, the spores being carried by the air, but they can easily be detected if the characteristics of mushrooms given above are borne in mind. An interesting fact about the small "Fairy Ring Champignon," another edible fungus, is that it grows in rings, and that the grassy "fairy rings" often seen among the short gvass of downs and pastures in spring are generally caused by the nitrogenous manure applied to the soil in the previous .autumn by the decay of a circle of these fungi. In cases of poisoning by mushrooms a doctor should be called in at once. This course was unfortunately not followed in the Ipswich case. The dangerous principle is a narcotic, and the symptoms are usually great nausea, drowsiness, stupor, and pains in the joints., A good palliative is sweet oil. This will allay any corrosive irritation of the throat and stomach, and at the same time cause vomiting.