A
Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews
Guest
Fatal Poisoning After a Group of People in Critical Mass Voluntarily
Consumed Hallucinogenic Mushrooms
Originally posted at Lycaeum
Original title: "Intoxication mortelle a la suite de la consommation
volontaire et en groupe de champignons hallucinogenes."
Summary
The authors report the fatality of a 22-year-old man after he and a group of
friends voluntarily consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms, in this case
Psilocybe semilanceata (Fr. : Fr.) Kummer. According to the best of our
knowledge, up to now, this cosmopolitan species had never caused any
fatalities, this is the first observation of this type ever made in the
world, so the so-called innocuousness of hallucinogenic mushrooms is now
questioned.
INTRODUCTION:
From the pre-Columbian period on, 2,000 years ago, hallucinogenic mushrooms
have been worship in Central America. During the Spanish conquest, this cult
was known as TEONANACALT. the soothsayers consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms
in order to communicate with the Gods and to get information about their
patients diseases, how to treat them... Nowadays, it has almost disappeared
from Mexico. This mushroom cult was studied by Wasson (37), Heim identified
and cultivated the concerned species (10, 11, 12), which enabled Hoffman to
isolate and identify the active components. Those are derivatives from
serotonin or from 5-hydroxytryptamin such as psilocin (4-hydroxy-N,
N-dimethyltryptamin). More recently, related derivatives were identified :
baeocystin (4-phosphoryloxy-N-methyltryptamin) and norbaeocystin
(4-phosphoryloxy-N-tryptamin) (18). Many amines are also found in these
mushrooms, but in smaller quantity. Very little is known about their
biological properties (1, 17).
Whereas the religious and medical use of hallucinogenic mushrooms has
disappeared, the recreational use is increasing. Nowadays, there is a marked
increase in the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms everywhere in the world and
especially in the United States, Great Britain and in Australia (27). Many
popular scientific works were written about hallucinogenic mushrooms,
sometimes with a printrun of 100,000 or more ! (21, 25, 34, 35). In order to
avoid any harvesting problems, some companies openly (if not legally)
propose the equipment, the techniques and even the spores in home growing
kits.
Recently, several URL's and electronic bulletin boards which are totally
dedicated to the subject were created on Internet, where everything is
possible. In France, this phenomenon is not so severe, probably because of
the regulations forbidding the harvesting of hallucinogenic mushrooms that
were published in the latest mycological issues. However, the song
`Mangez-moi' (eat me) which openly encouraged such harvesting was quite
successful on the radio before being subjected to restrictions.
CASE REPORT:
The facts we relate here are based on statements made by persons who took
part in a `mushroom party' at a Critical Mass ride. The state prosecutor
opened an inquiry and two questioning took place, one made by the
`gendarmes', the other by judicial policy officers. The first questioning
was made the following day, but obviously, the participants did not have a
fresh mind. The second was made a few days later to get more precise
information, which was not easy as it dealt with the consumption of
hallucinogenic drugs. We will only sum up the facts that are important for
the reasons and understanding of this fatal poisoning. According to the
paragraphs L626, L627, L628 of the French `Code de la Santé publique', no
names or places will be cited hereafter.
M. A., a 22-year-old man living in Finistère (France), decided on the 29th
of September 1993, to spend the afternoon harvesting hallucinogenic
mushrooms in the damp fields of the area. According to his friends, he was
used to harvesting. He was also used to drinking alcohol and smoking
cannabis on a regular basis. He was penniless and his usual cannabis dealer
had just been arrested, subsequently, mushrooms were an easy substitute. He
left home at 1:30 p.m. and came back around 6:00 p.m. to meet some friends
of his in their usual bar. They said he was already high on drugs as he had
eaten on-site an unspecified number of raw mushrooms. He felt dizzy,
suffered from abdominal cramps and had difficulties in breathing. His
friends noticed that he was pale, he sometimes sweated abundantly and he
behaved as if he was drunk. Despite this alarming symptomatology, he took a
dozen of mushrooms out of his bag and ate them in front of his friends,
inviting them to share the remaining mushrooms boiles in tea. Four of them
accepted to do so. They boiled the tea at 8:30 p.m. using 20 to 40
mushrooms. This tea was shared and rapidly caused different effects
depending on the persons, which is common in this type of poisoning.
M. B., 20 years old drank half a cup of it and felt euphoric within 30
minutes, followed by a state of drunkenness and a loss of his balance. He
started vomiting, which slightly improved his state. He admitted he had
drunk 15 beers earlier that day. M.C. 36 years old drank one cup and ate 2
or 3 raw mushrooms. One hour later, he started feeling drunk and had colored
visions. M. D., 24 years old, did not remember the quantity he had ingested
but he said he had drunk a few beers earlier. He only felt a little drunk.
M.E., 20 years old, drank one cup and felt in a drunkenness state one hour
later, followed by paresthesy and cramps in her legs. As for M. A., the
victim, the participants had different opinions. Some said they had not seen
him drinking, others said that he joined them and drank the tea. This
opinion, approved by a majority of them seems to be the right one. Each
participant finally admitted that they felt restless, euphoric and voluble
at the end of those libations. Around 10:00 p.m., M.A. felt somnolent and
lay down. His breathing was irregular. His friends thought he was totally
drunk or had gone on a bad trip, because they could not make him stand up
and realized he had urinated in his trousers. They only started worrying at
midnight, when after some convulsions and spasms, he stopped reacting to
their calls and fell in a coma. Realizing that this was very serious, they
drove him to the hospital but unfortunately, there were no emergency
services ! Around 2:30 am; he was taken home, he was still unconscious. The
duty doctor was finally called. In vain, he tried to resuscitate him, he
could do nothing but certifying that the fatality has occurred. Given the
circumstances of the fatality, a judicial inquiry was ordered and a
postmortem examination was made to determine the cause of the fatality.
TOXICOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
We have looked for the usual toxins in the blood and urine samples, in the
kidney and in the liver.
Blood, urine and gastric content : The GC analysis of ethanol, alcohol and
other volatile substances was negative. Barbiturates, benzodiazepins,
tricyclic antidepressives, paracetamol, cannabinoïds, opiates and cocaine
were not revealed in the urine by an immuno technique (EMIT) and salicylates
by colorimetric technique : negative. Carbon monoxyde, paraquat and
chlorinated solvents were negative, so was the amanitins of methanol
extracts from the gastric content by TLS. The detection of blood
cholinesterases was normal. Thus, it can not be a organophosphorated
pesticide poisoning. Finally, we tried to systematically detect foreign
substances in the body by HPLC and mass spectrometry. Nothing was detected
on acid, neutral and basic extracts.
Kidney and liver:
A fragment of each organ was hydrolyzed by `subtilisin',. The obtained
liquid was extracted from acid, neutral and basic environment by
dichloromethan. After an azote controlled evaporation, the dry residue was
extracted by methanol. The organic extracts were analyzed by HPLC and mass
spectrometry. No abnormal substances were found.
Study and measurement of hallucinogenic indolic components:
This was performed on methanolic extracts from the gastric content, blood
and hydrolysats from kidney and liver. We tried to detect halucinogenic
indolic components and especially psilocybin and psilocin. Psilocybin
rapidly hydrolyses in the body to create psilocin which is the biologically
active substance. This hydrolysis is performed in the ratio 100 / 72,
depending on each molecular weight. We found psilocin but no psilocybin, not
even in the gastric content, which confirmed the rapid hydrolysis because of
the high acidity of the gastric juice. HPLC was the method used to determine
the quantification combined with fluorometric detection since mass
spectrometry is less effective on this kind of chemical because the weight
spectra show a very low density molecular ion (5, 15, 16, 33, 36). A
psilocybin standard was used for the quantification. The psilocin was
extracted through the hydrolysis at 37°C of this psilocybin by alkaline
phosphatase in pH 7 Tris 1M buffer overnight.
Results :
- blood : 4 micrograms/ml of psilocin - gastric content : only trace amounts
of psilocin, which were not easily measurable because of all the impurities
we could not correctly eliminate. - kidney and liver : failed because of an
unidentified chemical interfering with psilocin
Nothing found in the literature could help us interpreting these results.
Furthermore, the blood used was drawn 36 hours after the death, thus, the
results can not be applied to the living. However, this proved that
psilocybin containing mushrooms were ingested.
MYCOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF THE SPECIES IN CAUSE :
Macroscopic study :
This study failed because we could not find the mushrooms that were used for
the tea. The witnesses described the mushrooms as being : Little Brown
Mushrooms with a long slender stipe, some of them presented the papilla
which is necessary to recognize an hallucinogenic psilocybe. The victim, who
harvested them himself, used to pretend he was familiar with `Psilos' ! But
in fact, he only knew one species, Psilocybe semilanceata which he had been
harvesting for years for his personal use. On the day of the gathering, the
harvesting was especially good and after having consumed some of them raw
on-site, M.A. wanted to share his discovery with his friends. Only four of
them accepted. They were reluctant but curious to taste hallucinogenic
mushrooms. The species they described corresponded to Psilocybe
semilanceata, which we had frequently found on this station.
Microscopic study
It was performed on the gastric content drawn during the postmortem
examination. The content exhibited no fragments visible to the naked eye.
The study with the microscope did not exhibit any fragments bigger than 200
micrometers. Colored preparations were made using different dyeing reagents
: ammoniacal red Congo, cotton blue, and METZLER reagent There were no
evidences of cystidia or chrysocystia, only a few basidia 4-spored and
hyphae with clamp-connections were found. The spores were not cyanophilic,
metachromatic or amyloidic. The gastric content was centrifuged after the
adding of water and diethyl ether in order to gather more spores. On the
centrifugation pallet, which were rich in spores, we made the following
observations : Smooth and ellipsoid spores of a purplish brown color
(mounted in water and ammonia 10 ), thick walled of about 1 micrometer,
size: 11.5-14 x 7-8 micrometers, and having an apical germ pore. A GIEMSA
dye showed binucleate spores. We did not observed any spores different from
those described above, which proved that only one species of mushrooms was
ingested, at least just before the fatality or before pumping the stomach.
We did not notice any mushroom spores belonging to species known for their
hallucinogenic properties, such as Panaeolus (Fr.) Quélet and Hypholoma
(Fr.) Kummer. The observed spores belong to the families of Strophariaceae
Singer and Smith and of Bolbitiaceae Singer, known for having numerous
species that are very potent in hallucinogenic indolic components (14,32).
We do not think that standing in the acid environment of the stomach or
being cooked could have modified their size or their aspects as they are
very resistant. Considering the reported facts, the presence of psilocin in
the blood and the gastric content of the victim, and the above observations,
we do think the victim had consumed Psilocybes belonging to the Semilanceata
Guzmàn section (= Tenaces Singer).
The most likely species being here Psilocybe semilanceata (Fr.: Fr.) Kummer.
By reading the mycological literature, we noticed differences in the sizes
of the spores given by the authors. : 15 x 7 micrometers (2); 12-16 x 7-8
micrometers ( 24), but a majority indicates smaller spores : 12-14 x 7-8
micrometers (9); 12-14 x 7-8.5 (14); 12-14 x 7-8 micrometers (38). To solve
this problem, we measured the macroscopically typical spores of a sample
from our herbarium and that were gathered neat the place where the victim
had harvested his. We measured the following average lengths : 12.5-14 x 7-8
micrometers, which are the same as those of the spores found in the gastric
content of the victim.
According to WATLING (38), the European consumers who ingest hallucinogenic
mushrooms as a recreational means often confuse three species on-site :
Psilocybe fimetaria (Orton) Watling with spores of 11-14 x 6.5-8.5
micrometers; Psilocybe semilanceata (Fr. : Fr.) Kummer with spores of 12-14
x 7-8 micrometers and Psilocybe callosa (Fr. : Fr.) Quélet (= Psilocybe
strictipes Singer and Smith).
In this particular case, it can not be Ps. callosa, whose spores are smaller
or Ps. fimeteria because of its rarity and its particular habit in Brittany,
where only a few of them can be found, unlike Ps semilanceata that can be
gather in large quantity. These observations lead to the conclusion that
Psilocybe semilanceata is the cause of this voluntary group intoxication and
of the fatality.
DISCUSSION:
This fatality, probably the first of this kind, that occurred after the
consumption of Psilocybe semilanceata leads to several hypothesis. The
postmortem examination results did not reveal any severe diseases or any
organic causes related to the death. The victim was apparently healthy. A
mushroom poisoning is highly probable since no other toxins were found. The
inadvertent consumption of toxicological species causing severe amatoxin
muscarine poisoning and red blood cell damage can not be considered since
the symptomatology is different. Furthermore, no amatoxins were found in the
gastric content and the postmortem examination did not reveal any hemolytic
syndromes.
The possibility that people with little experience had misidentified the
mushrooms is correctly expressed in popular scientific works about
hallucinogenic mushrooms (21, 22, 25, 34, 35) and it is especially well
described on the Internet (a, b). the American public is especially warned
against three amanitin species : Galerina venenata A.H. Smith; Galerina
autumnalis (Peck) Smith and Singer and Pholiotina filaris (Fr.) Singer which
can be found in France where other Amanita species exist, some of them also
bear hallucinogenic indolic compounds.
Finally, all Cortinarius of the Dermocybe subtype are said to cause late
renal failure, especially in the United States where a number of
hallucinogenic species grows in the woods. A poisoning of this type was
reported by RAFF (29). These information documents also warn against
dangerous mixing which increase the adverse effects of hallucinogenic
indolic compounds. The simultaneous consumption of alcohol and of other
drugs can lead to `bad trips'. Some types of medicine are also inadvisable
as a lethal effect is possible. The victim had not drunk alcohol and he was
not on drugs, he was not treated with MAOI and blood analysis had shown no
medicines. This voluntary poisoning belongs to the same category as those
usually observed with hallucinogenic mushrooms (20, 31). PEDEN (26) who
studied 44 cases that had led to hospitalization, determined their
symptomatology : nausea, abdominal pains, enuresis, hyperreflexia, violent
or on the opposite, sleepy euphoria and unrestness, pain in the lower limbs,
parasthesia, mydriase, tachychardia and hypertension. The reported symptoms
in this observations are serious and concern only the people who were
hospitalized because of adverse effects. It should be added that every
hallucinogenic mushrooms consumer does not necessary show any physical or
psychic disorders as some of them appear to resist to this type or drugs or
are not very sensitive to it. This conveys how diversified people's
reactions are when faced with this type of intoxication. Testing pure
psilocybin on man also proved that the psychic and psychological effects
were very different from one volunteer to another (23).
Consumed Hallucinogenic Mushrooms
Originally posted at Lycaeum
Original title: "Intoxication mortelle a la suite de la consommation
volontaire et en groupe de champignons hallucinogenes."
Summary
The authors report the fatality of a 22-year-old man after he and a group of
friends voluntarily consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms, in this case
Psilocybe semilanceata (Fr. : Fr.) Kummer. According to the best of our
knowledge, up to now, this cosmopolitan species had never caused any
fatalities, this is the first observation of this type ever made in the
world, so the so-called innocuousness of hallucinogenic mushrooms is now
questioned.
INTRODUCTION:
From the pre-Columbian period on, 2,000 years ago, hallucinogenic mushrooms
have been worship in Central America. During the Spanish conquest, this cult
was known as TEONANACALT. the soothsayers consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms
in order to communicate with the Gods and to get information about their
patients diseases, how to treat them... Nowadays, it has almost disappeared
from Mexico. This mushroom cult was studied by Wasson (37), Heim identified
and cultivated the concerned species (10, 11, 12), which enabled Hoffman to
isolate and identify the active components. Those are derivatives from
serotonin or from 5-hydroxytryptamin such as psilocin (4-hydroxy-N,
N-dimethyltryptamin). More recently, related derivatives were identified :
baeocystin (4-phosphoryloxy-N-methyltryptamin) and norbaeocystin
(4-phosphoryloxy-N-tryptamin) (18). Many amines are also found in these
mushrooms, but in smaller quantity. Very little is known about their
biological properties (1, 17).
Whereas the religious and medical use of hallucinogenic mushrooms has
disappeared, the recreational use is increasing. Nowadays, there is a marked
increase in the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms everywhere in the world and
especially in the United States, Great Britain and in Australia (27). Many
popular scientific works were written about hallucinogenic mushrooms,
sometimes with a printrun of 100,000 or more ! (21, 25, 34, 35). In order to
avoid any harvesting problems, some companies openly (if not legally)
propose the equipment, the techniques and even the spores in home growing
kits.
Recently, several URL's and electronic bulletin boards which are totally
dedicated to the subject were created on Internet, where everything is
possible. In France, this phenomenon is not so severe, probably because of
the regulations forbidding the harvesting of hallucinogenic mushrooms that
were published in the latest mycological issues. However, the song
`Mangez-moi' (eat me) which openly encouraged such harvesting was quite
successful on the radio before being subjected to restrictions.
CASE REPORT:
The facts we relate here are based on statements made by persons who took
part in a `mushroom party' at a Critical Mass ride. The state prosecutor
opened an inquiry and two questioning took place, one made by the
`gendarmes', the other by judicial policy officers. The first questioning
was made the following day, but obviously, the participants did not have a
fresh mind. The second was made a few days later to get more precise
information, which was not easy as it dealt with the consumption of
hallucinogenic drugs. We will only sum up the facts that are important for
the reasons and understanding of this fatal poisoning. According to the
paragraphs L626, L627, L628 of the French `Code de la Santé publique', no
names or places will be cited hereafter.
M. A., a 22-year-old man living in Finistère (France), decided on the 29th
of September 1993, to spend the afternoon harvesting hallucinogenic
mushrooms in the damp fields of the area. According to his friends, he was
used to harvesting. He was also used to drinking alcohol and smoking
cannabis on a regular basis. He was penniless and his usual cannabis dealer
had just been arrested, subsequently, mushrooms were an easy substitute. He
left home at 1:30 p.m. and came back around 6:00 p.m. to meet some friends
of his in their usual bar. They said he was already high on drugs as he had
eaten on-site an unspecified number of raw mushrooms. He felt dizzy,
suffered from abdominal cramps and had difficulties in breathing. His
friends noticed that he was pale, he sometimes sweated abundantly and he
behaved as if he was drunk. Despite this alarming symptomatology, he took a
dozen of mushrooms out of his bag and ate them in front of his friends,
inviting them to share the remaining mushrooms boiles in tea. Four of them
accepted to do so. They boiled the tea at 8:30 p.m. using 20 to 40
mushrooms. This tea was shared and rapidly caused different effects
depending on the persons, which is common in this type of poisoning.
M. B., 20 years old drank half a cup of it and felt euphoric within 30
minutes, followed by a state of drunkenness and a loss of his balance. He
started vomiting, which slightly improved his state. He admitted he had
drunk 15 beers earlier that day. M.C. 36 years old drank one cup and ate 2
or 3 raw mushrooms. One hour later, he started feeling drunk and had colored
visions. M. D., 24 years old, did not remember the quantity he had ingested
but he said he had drunk a few beers earlier. He only felt a little drunk.
M.E., 20 years old, drank one cup and felt in a drunkenness state one hour
later, followed by paresthesy and cramps in her legs. As for M. A., the
victim, the participants had different opinions. Some said they had not seen
him drinking, others said that he joined them and drank the tea. This
opinion, approved by a majority of them seems to be the right one. Each
participant finally admitted that they felt restless, euphoric and voluble
at the end of those libations. Around 10:00 p.m., M.A. felt somnolent and
lay down. His breathing was irregular. His friends thought he was totally
drunk or had gone on a bad trip, because they could not make him stand up
and realized he had urinated in his trousers. They only started worrying at
midnight, when after some convulsions and spasms, he stopped reacting to
their calls and fell in a coma. Realizing that this was very serious, they
drove him to the hospital but unfortunately, there were no emergency
services ! Around 2:30 am; he was taken home, he was still unconscious. The
duty doctor was finally called. In vain, he tried to resuscitate him, he
could do nothing but certifying that the fatality has occurred. Given the
circumstances of the fatality, a judicial inquiry was ordered and a
postmortem examination was made to determine the cause of the fatality.
TOXICOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
We have looked for the usual toxins in the blood and urine samples, in the
kidney and in the liver.
Blood, urine and gastric content : The GC analysis of ethanol, alcohol and
other volatile substances was negative. Barbiturates, benzodiazepins,
tricyclic antidepressives, paracetamol, cannabinoïds, opiates and cocaine
were not revealed in the urine by an immuno technique (EMIT) and salicylates
by colorimetric technique : negative. Carbon monoxyde, paraquat and
chlorinated solvents were negative, so was the amanitins of methanol
extracts from the gastric content by TLS. The detection of blood
cholinesterases was normal. Thus, it can not be a organophosphorated
pesticide poisoning. Finally, we tried to systematically detect foreign
substances in the body by HPLC and mass spectrometry. Nothing was detected
on acid, neutral and basic extracts.
Kidney and liver:
A fragment of each organ was hydrolyzed by `subtilisin',. The obtained
liquid was extracted from acid, neutral and basic environment by
dichloromethan. After an azote controlled evaporation, the dry residue was
extracted by methanol. The organic extracts were analyzed by HPLC and mass
spectrometry. No abnormal substances were found.
Study and measurement of hallucinogenic indolic components:
This was performed on methanolic extracts from the gastric content, blood
and hydrolysats from kidney and liver. We tried to detect halucinogenic
indolic components and especially psilocybin and psilocin. Psilocybin
rapidly hydrolyses in the body to create psilocin which is the biologically
active substance. This hydrolysis is performed in the ratio 100 / 72,
depending on each molecular weight. We found psilocin but no psilocybin, not
even in the gastric content, which confirmed the rapid hydrolysis because of
the high acidity of the gastric juice. HPLC was the method used to determine
the quantification combined with fluorometric detection since mass
spectrometry is less effective on this kind of chemical because the weight
spectra show a very low density molecular ion (5, 15, 16, 33, 36). A
psilocybin standard was used for the quantification. The psilocin was
extracted through the hydrolysis at 37°C of this psilocybin by alkaline
phosphatase in pH 7 Tris 1M buffer overnight.
Results :
- blood : 4 micrograms/ml of psilocin - gastric content : only trace amounts
of psilocin, which were not easily measurable because of all the impurities
we could not correctly eliminate. - kidney and liver : failed because of an
unidentified chemical interfering with psilocin
Nothing found in the literature could help us interpreting these results.
Furthermore, the blood used was drawn 36 hours after the death, thus, the
results can not be applied to the living. However, this proved that
psilocybin containing mushrooms were ingested.
MYCOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF THE SPECIES IN CAUSE :
Macroscopic study :
This study failed because we could not find the mushrooms that were used for
the tea. The witnesses described the mushrooms as being : Little Brown
Mushrooms with a long slender stipe, some of them presented the papilla
which is necessary to recognize an hallucinogenic psilocybe. The victim, who
harvested them himself, used to pretend he was familiar with `Psilos' ! But
in fact, he only knew one species, Psilocybe semilanceata which he had been
harvesting for years for his personal use. On the day of the gathering, the
harvesting was especially good and after having consumed some of them raw
on-site, M.A. wanted to share his discovery with his friends. Only four of
them accepted. They were reluctant but curious to taste hallucinogenic
mushrooms. The species they described corresponded to Psilocybe
semilanceata, which we had frequently found on this station.
Microscopic study
It was performed on the gastric content drawn during the postmortem
examination. The content exhibited no fragments visible to the naked eye.
The study with the microscope did not exhibit any fragments bigger than 200
micrometers. Colored preparations were made using different dyeing reagents
: ammoniacal red Congo, cotton blue, and METZLER reagent There were no
evidences of cystidia or chrysocystia, only a few basidia 4-spored and
hyphae with clamp-connections were found. The spores were not cyanophilic,
metachromatic or amyloidic. The gastric content was centrifuged after the
adding of water and diethyl ether in order to gather more spores. On the
centrifugation pallet, which were rich in spores, we made the following
observations : Smooth and ellipsoid spores of a purplish brown color
(mounted in water and ammonia 10 ), thick walled of about 1 micrometer,
size: 11.5-14 x 7-8 micrometers, and having an apical germ pore. A GIEMSA
dye showed binucleate spores. We did not observed any spores different from
those described above, which proved that only one species of mushrooms was
ingested, at least just before the fatality or before pumping the stomach.
We did not notice any mushroom spores belonging to species known for their
hallucinogenic properties, such as Panaeolus (Fr.) Quélet and Hypholoma
(Fr.) Kummer. The observed spores belong to the families of Strophariaceae
Singer and Smith and of Bolbitiaceae Singer, known for having numerous
species that are very potent in hallucinogenic indolic components (14,32).
We do not think that standing in the acid environment of the stomach or
being cooked could have modified their size or their aspects as they are
very resistant. Considering the reported facts, the presence of psilocin in
the blood and the gastric content of the victim, and the above observations,
we do think the victim had consumed Psilocybes belonging to the Semilanceata
Guzmàn section (= Tenaces Singer).
The most likely species being here Psilocybe semilanceata (Fr.: Fr.) Kummer.
By reading the mycological literature, we noticed differences in the sizes
of the spores given by the authors. : 15 x 7 micrometers (2); 12-16 x 7-8
micrometers ( 24), but a majority indicates smaller spores : 12-14 x 7-8
micrometers (9); 12-14 x 7-8.5 (14); 12-14 x 7-8 micrometers (38). To solve
this problem, we measured the macroscopically typical spores of a sample
from our herbarium and that were gathered neat the place where the victim
had harvested his. We measured the following average lengths : 12.5-14 x 7-8
micrometers, which are the same as those of the spores found in the gastric
content of the victim.
According to WATLING (38), the European consumers who ingest hallucinogenic
mushrooms as a recreational means often confuse three species on-site :
Psilocybe fimetaria (Orton) Watling with spores of 11-14 x 6.5-8.5
micrometers; Psilocybe semilanceata (Fr. : Fr.) Kummer with spores of 12-14
x 7-8 micrometers and Psilocybe callosa (Fr. : Fr.) Quélet (= Psilocybe
strictipes Singer and Smith).
In this particular case, it can not be Ps. callosa, whose spores are smaller
or Ps. fimeteria because of its rarity and its particular habit in Brittany,
where only a few of them can be found, unlike Ps semilanceata that can be
gather in large quantity. These observations lead to the conclusion that
Psilocybe semilanceata is the cause of this voluntary group intoxication and
of the fatality.
DISCUSSION:
This fatality, probably the first of this kind, that occurred after the
consumption of Psilocybe semilanceata leads to several hypothesis. The
postmortem examination results did not reveal any severe diseases or any
organic causes related to the death. The victim was apparently healthy. A
mushroom poisoning is highly probable since no other toxins were found. The
inadvertent consumption of toxicological species causing severe amatoxin
muscarine poisoning and red blood cell damage can not be considered since
the symptomatology is different. Furthermore, no amatoxins were found in the
gastric content and the postmortem examination did not reveal any hemolytic
syndromes.
The possibility that people with little experience had misidentified the
mushrooms is correctly expressed in popular scientific works about
hallucinogenic mushrooms (21, 22, 25, 34, 35) and it is especially well
described on the Internet (a, b). the American public is especially warned
against three amanitin species : Galerina venenata A.H. Smith; Galerina
autumnalis (Peck) Smith and Singer and Pholiotina filaris (Fr.) Singer which
can be found in France where other Amanita species exist, some of them also
bear hallucinogenic indolic compounds.
Finally, all Cortinarius of the Dermocybe subtype are said to cause late
renal failure, especially in the United States where a number of
hallucinogenic species grows in the woods. A poisoning of this type was
reported by RAFF (29). These information documents also warn against
dangerous mixing which increase the adverse effects of hallucinogenic
indolic compounds. The simultaneous consumption of alcohol and of other
drugs can lead to `bad trips'. Some types of medicine are also inadvisable
as a lethal effect is possible. The victim had not drunk alcohol and he was
not on drugs, he was not treated with MAOI and blood analysis had shown no
medicines. This voluntary poisoning belongs to the same category as those
usually observed with hallucinogenic mushrooms (20, 31). PEDEN (26) who
studied 44 cases that had led to hospitalization, determined their
symptomatology : nausea, abdominal pains, enuresis, hyperreflexia, violent
or on the opposite, sleepy euphoria and unrestness, pain in the lower limbs,
parasthesia, mydriase, tachychardia and hypertension. The reported symptoms
in this observations are serious and concern only the people who were
hospitalized because of adverse effects. It should be added that every
hallucinogenic mushrooms consumer does not necessary show any physical or
psychic disorders as some of them appear to resist to this type or drugs or
are not very sensitive to it. This conveys how diversified people's
reactions are when faced with this type of intoxication. Testing pure
psilocybin on man also proved that the psychic and psychological effects
were very different from one volunteer to another (23).