104 -RHUS VERNIX,. | 
felt. The inflamed parts become excessively 
swollen, so that not unfrequently the eyes are 
closed, and the countenance assumes a shapeless 
and cadayerous appearance, which has been com- 
pared to that in malignant small pox. The dis- 
ease is usually at its height from the fourth to the 
sixth day, after which the skin and inerustations 
begin to separate from the diseased parts, and 
the symptoms gradually subside. It is not com- 
mon for any scars or permanent traces of the dis- 
ease to remain. Notwithstanding the violent 
character which it sometimes assumes, I never 
knew an authenticated case of its terminating fa- 
tally. It is however capable of occasioning the 
most distressing symptoms. Kalm, in his trayels 
in North America, mentions a person who, by the 
simple exhalation of the Rhus vernix, was swol- 
len to such a degree, that “he was stiff asa log of 
wood, and could only be turned about in sheets.” 
Dr. Thacher mentions a case, in which the head 
and body were swollen to a prodigious degree, so 
28 to occasion the loss of sight for some time; and 
the patient recovered at the end of several weeks 
with the loss of his hair and nails. 
Of the cases which haye fallen under my no- 
tice, the following affords a fair instance of the 
operation of this poison, as it ordinarily effects 
