The dangers of eating mushrooms are greatly overstated, even by mushroom experts (a tribute, once again, to our cultural antipathy toward mushrooms). Once you learn how to avoid the few truly dangerous kinds, the greatest risk you face is gastrointestinal distress of a greater or lesser degree, and our bodies are built to handle such distress. Yet we are inundated with dire warnings about the dangers of “toadstool testing” that are vastly disproportional to the real damage that mushrooms inflict (they cause very few if any deaths annually in North America).
The most dangerous mushroom toxins are the amanitins found in the deadly amanitas and several LBMs (“little brown mushrooms”). Learn how to recognize these mushrooms before you learn the edible ones. The symptoms are typically delayed for 6–24 hours after ingestion, so if you have reason to believe that someone has eaten a deadly mushroom, seek medical attention immediately! Don’t wait for the symptoms to appear; by the time they do the toxins will have been absorbed.
Should you be poisoned by a mushroom, try to remain calm, identify the agent responsible, and seek medical attention if you need it. Idiosyncratic reactions to edible mushrooms are generally not serious enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, but if there is any doubt, err on the side of safety. Also remember that “mildly poisonous” mushrooms can have more serious effects on small children.
For a more detailed listing of poisonous mushrooms and their effects (including some kinds not depicted in this book), see MD 892–896 and Toxic and Hallucinogenic Mushroom Poisoning by Gary Lincoff and D.H. Mitchel (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977).