108 RHUS VERNIX. 
posures, particularly when making, from a-recent, 
specimen, the drawing which accompanies this 
account, 
I apprehend that a majority of persons are not 
liable to the injurious effeets of the poisonous su- 
macs, Among persons residing in the country, 
exposures must occur very frequently from the 
abundance of these shrubs, especially of the Rhus 
radicans, by roadsides and elsewhere. Very few 
however, in proportion to the number exposed, 
have personal experience of their deleterious ef- 
fects. In those on the contrary, in whom a con- 
stitutional liability to the poison exists, the disease 
frequently returns several times during life, not- 
withstanding the utmost precaution in avoiding 
its causes. A gentleman residing in the coun- 
try informed me, that he had been seven times 
poisoned to the most violent degree. In such 
constitutions a slight exposure is sufficient to ex- 
cite the disease. I have known individuals bad- 
ly poisoned in winter from the wood of the Rhus 
vernix, accidentally burnt on the fire. Others 
have made the same observation. 
Some farther remarks on the poison of these 
shrubs, and on the treatment of the disease oc- 
casioned by them, will be made in a future part 
of this work, under the head of Rhus radicans. 
