POISON Ivy. 29 
The Rhus radicans has been administered 
internally in certain diseases by a few’ practi- 
tioners‘in Europe and America. Dr. Horsefield, 
in several instances, administered a strong 
infusion in the dose of about a teacup full to’ 
consumptive and anasarcous patients. It ap- 
peared to act as an immediate stimulant to the 
stomach, producing -some uneasiness in that 
organ, also promoting perspiration and diuresis. 
Some practitioners in the Middle States, we are 
told by the same author, have exhibited it with 
supposed benefit in pulmonary consumption. A 
French physician, Du Fresnoy, has reported 
seven cases of obstinate herpetic eruption, which 
were cured by the preparations of this plant. 
His attention was drawn to the subject by finding 
that a young man who had a dartre upon his 
wrist of six years’ standing, was cured of it by 
accidentally becoming poisoned with this plant. 
The same physician administered the extract in 
several cases of palsy, four of which, he says, were 
cured by it. 
Dr. Alderson, of Hull, in England, gave the 
Rhus toxicodendron in doses of half a grain, or a 
grain three times a day, in several cases Of 
paralysis ; and states, that all his patients recoy- 
_ ered, to a certain degree, the use of their limbs. 
