September, 11)21.] 



The 



Canaeian Field Nat, kalist. 



117 



first symptoms of poison ivy injury, at 

 first merely a redness, irritable and itch- 

 ing, slightly raised above the normal skin, 

 bordering pricks and scratches followed 

 by a few watery bli-sters, containing a 

 cloudy serous liquid ; finally intense irri- 

 tation, numerous blisters, and oozing in- 

 flamed patc;ies are the result. The ooze is 

 conveyed to other parts of the body ; eye- 

 lids, lips, neck, etc., become involved, and 

 the discomfort is great. Children will 

 scratch the blisters open, and in severe 

 cases there is loss of sleep and appetite. 



The plant comes in for considerable blame 

 anyway, but superstition and incorrect or 

 inadequate observations liave given rise 

 to tales of: "once infected, the infection 

 lasts seven years ; it recurs every year I in 

 fact it is almost hopeless!" This assump- 

 tion is really nonsense. Yet one comes 

 across such comments often enough in text- 

 books which should really know better. 

 Poison ivy irritations are acute in t/ie first 

 place ; none of the many children and 

 grown-ups whom I have made it my busi- 

 ness to watch have ever shown recurrence 

 without re-infection. If skin troubles re- 

 cur, they we: e not originally due to poison 

 ivy. Yet there may be some truth appar- 

 ently in the assumption that actual contact 

 is not necessary. I doubt this, liowever, 

 from mere lack of positive evidence. No- 

 body, of course, ever comes knowingly in- 

 to contact with poison ivy. One such case 

 is known to me, where afterwards I found 

 a vase full of glorious fall-tinged poison 

 ivy in t^ie house with two of the inmates 

 suffering from a persistent "heat rash", 

 with the usual poison ivy symptoms. 



Not until one of my own children af- 

 forded me material for study and experi- 

 ment did I become interested in the treat- 

 ment of poison ivy. At first as usual 

 every possible thing was tried, even med- 

 ical opinions were sought. Pet remedies 

 which everybody seems to possess were 

 equally uselessly employed. Baking pow- 

 der, sour milk, sulphur soap, lead water, 

 lead acetate, boracic powder and lotion, 

 calamine lotion, potass, permanganate, fat- 

 ty and alcoholic substances, extracts of 

 Grindelia, the fresh juice of Impatiens, 

 were tried one after the other and results 

 noted. None of these substances is a cur- 



ative; some eased the irritati( n for a mo- 

 ment, ot.aer.s caused profuse oozing. The 

 child was productive of wonderful patches 

 until iier shins were covered with one ooz- 

 ing, beady sore, 2 inches wdde and 8 inches 

 long. The usual precautions were taken. 

 The child was not allowed to swim in the 

 river, was cautioned and occasionally ef- 

 fectively prevented from scratching, but 

 the dose of ivy poisoning persisted until 

 the following treatment was resorted to. 

 The oozing sores were washed perfectly 

 clean with soap and Avater, followed by 

 dubbing wit/i 95 per cent alcohol which 

 latter did no good but the sores were 

 then dried with a clean absorbent towel 

 and were painted over from one to three 

 times with a cotton wool plug dipped into 

 Tincture of Iodine the usual B. P. tinc- 

 ture although later on in cases of adults 

 tJhe Churchill tincture was often used. 

 This application caused profuse oozing, and 

 the ooze w^as absorbed by dusting with bor- 

 acic acid powder. The application of the 

 iodine tincture did not cause any pain 

 other than t/iat resulting from the actual 

 mechanical touch. The smaller sores were 

 treated just the same. After 24 hours most 

 of the iodine stains had disappeared. The 

 skin was again washed as before with soap 

 and water, dried, and a second application 

 was made, followed 6 hours later by a third. 

 Careful attention was paid to any possible 

 signs of iodine poisoning, such as redness 

 or burns, or any effects from absorption 

 of the drug, which is known to occur in 

 certain individuals, but no untoward com- 

 plication became noticeable, and the pat- 

 ches healed up, most of the minor ones 

 after one good application, i. e. allowing 

 the first to dry and painting again until 

 a good deep-yellow, yet still lio^ht brown 

 stain resulted. The sores on the shins had 

 healed up after a week three applica- 

 tions of tincture of iodine sufficed. Dur- 

 ing all this time t}\e child was permitted 

 to go in bathing with the rest of the chil- 

 dren, without any ill effect to her or the 

 others. The preliminary treatments, as de- 

 scribed before the iodine was resorted to, 

 are not necessary, as further experiments 

 and observations proved. In not a single 

 case of poisoning with poison ivy did I 

 observe failure or ill effects, and a good 



