His remarks applied to Great Britain, and reflected a popular disdain of fungi, which presented a marked contrast to the appreciation of the mushroom of the Continent, where the fungus had become the much-sought _bonne bouche_ of the epicure, and the welcome reliance of the peasant poor, to whom it afforded a perfect substitute for the desideratum of animal food commonly denied them by their circumstances.
This plea of Dr. Badham's is even more pointedly pertinent to the America of the present than it was for his own country at the time; for while, in Great Britain, the mycophagist epicure was even then occasionally to be met with, in America to-day this particular gastronomic specialist is locally conspicuous, or rather notorious, from his very rarity, being popularly considered as a sort of dangerous crank, who should be conservatively muzzled by the authorities, for the safety of himself as well as the public.
In the absence of any adequate popular guide to this great food resource, it may be hoped that this present work may afford not merely an occasional dainty entrée to the menu of the luxurious epicure, but--a far more important consideration--a means of bringing the fungus within reach of the less-favored masses as a never-failing dependence for their daily food.
Dr. Badham's further pertinent remarks are worth quoting, in this connection, with emphasis: "As soon as the reader is initiated in this class of dainties he will, I am persuaded, lose no time in making the discovery known to the poor of his neighborhood; while in so doing he will render an important service to the country at large, by instructing the indigent and ignorant in the choice of an ample, wholesome, and excellent article, which they may convert into money or consume at their own tables, when properly prepared, throughout the winter."
Concerning the lavish plenitude of the fungus as a food resource, a passage from a letter of the late Dr. Curtis, of North Carolina, to the Rev. J. M. Berkeley, of England, many years ago, is most significant: "Of this latter quality I had become so well convinced that, during our late war, I sometimes averred--and I doubt if there was much, if any, exaggeration in the assertion--that in some parts of the country I could maintain a regiment of soldiers five months in the year upon mushrooms alone." A statement which doubtless will appear extravagant to those who have been accustomed to consider the one common "mushroom" as the only esculent among the fungi.