160 BOTANY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
symptoms of poisoning usually manifest themselves. I believe the 
majority of persons are, like myself, unsusceptible of the virus of 
this, or the two other venomous Sumachs; but the numbers amongst 
those of my own acquaintance who have expressed to me their 
dread of contact or proximity to one or all of these shrubs, clearly 
show that their power of inflicting injury extends to a large pro- 
portion of individuals, perhaps as much as one in three, or even two 
in five. My friend the Rev. Dr. Bachman of Charlestown, S.C. 
related to me that being once on a botanical excursion with some 
friends in the neighbourhood of that city, they came upon a spe- 
cimen of the Poison Ash, (a rare tree in the low country of Carolina, 
and which some of those present had never seen growing,) and felt 
naturally desirous of gathering specimens for examination. This they 
proceeded to do, though warned: of the consequence likely to accrue 
from handling it by the doctor, @ho stood aloof from a danger which 
he knew to be inevitable in his own person on near approach, or con- 
tact. The result was, some of the party suffered severely; the inflam- 
matory action reaching up the arms to the trunk in one, in another 
only as high as the elbows; whilst in a third, the effects were con- 
fined to the hands, which, as is usual in these cases, became sadly 
swollen, inflamed, and finally ulcerated. The rest mostly escaped 
the poison. On his return home, Dr. B. found a branch of the 
shrub in his vasculum, which had been put there by some sceptical 
joker amongst certain of the party, who affected disbelief in the 
poisonous properties of the plant. This he requested his daughter, 
who was not susceptible of the poison, to take ont of the box and 
destroy, but at her suggestion permitted it to be dried for his her- 
barium. The next day symptoms of poisoning came on : intumes- 
cence of the entire body and lower extremities, attended with 
intolerable pain and irritation, confined him to bed for several - 
days ; nor was it till after many weeks that the ill effects had so far 
subsided, that he was able to resume his usual clerical duties: 5° 
violent indeed were the symptoms, that serious results were for 
some time apprehended. For several years after this accident my 
friend was subject to a periodical recurrence of the erisypelatous 
inflammation, which marks this particular poison, a very full 
account of which is given by Dr. Bigelow, in the first volume of 
LL. 
