Surgeon's agaric

UNITED STATES DISPENSATORY - 1918

Fungus chirurgorum. Boletus chirurgorum, Wundschwamm, G.—Surgeon's agaric is the product of Polyporus fomentarius (L.) Fries, which is found upon the oak and beech trees of Europe. It is shaped somewhat like the horse's foot, with a diameter of from six to ten inches. It is soft like velvet when young, but afterwards becomes hard and ligneous. It usually rests immediately upon the bark of the tree, without any supporting footstalk. On the upper surface it is smooth, but marked with circular ridges of different colors, more or less brown or blackish; on the under surface, it is whitish or yellowish, and full of small pores; internally it is fibrous, tough, and of a tawny-brown color. It is composed of short tubular fibers compactly arranged in layers, one of which is added every year. The best is that which grows on the oak, and the season for collecting the fungus is August or September. It has neither taste nor odor. Among its constituents, according to Bouillon-Lagrange, are extractive, resin in very small proportion, nitrogenous matter also in small quantity, potassium chloride, and calcium sulphate, and in its ashes are found iron, and calcium and magnesium phosphate. It is prepared for use by removing the exterior rind or bark, cutting the inner part into thin slices, and beating these with a hammer until they become soft, pliable, and easily torn by the fingers. In this state it was formerly much used by surgeons for arresting hemorrhage, being applied with pressure. P. ignarius (L.) Fries and P. marginatua Fries yield similar products. When prepared polyporus (so-called agaric) is steeped in a solution of nitre, and afterwards dried, it constitutes spunk, punk, or tinder, the amadou of the French, which occurs in flat pieces, of a consistence somewhat like that of very soft, rotten buckskin leather, of a brownish-yellow color, capable of absorbing liquids, and inflammable by the slightest spark. It is said to be prepared also from various other species of Polyporus, as P. ungulatus, P. ribis, etc.