XI 

 A RIVAL OF THE FABLED UPAS TREE 



WE are so accustomed nowadays to danger to life 

 and health from minute, invisible germs, and to 

 exerting all our skill in order to destroy them, that the 

 knowledge of the existence of large and beautiful trees 

 in our midst which can, and do, cause terrible disease 

 and suffering by their mere presence, comes as a shock, 

 and produces a peculiar sense of insecurity greater even 

 than that excited by unseen micro-organisms. For the 

 trees of which I am about to speak are cultivated in our 

 gardens, trained up against the walls of our houses with 

 loving care, and admired for the beautiful autumn tints 

 of their leaves. Yet it is now certain that they are the 

 cause in many persons of most terrible suffering and 

 illness. I am glad to be able to warn my readers in 

 regard to these plants, and I shall be very much interested 

 to hear whether the information which I am about to 

 give proves to be of value in any particular case. 



A married couple, friends of my own, went to live, 

 about fourteen years ago, in a newly built, detached 

 house, standing in its own garden, in the neighbourhood 

 of an English city. After they had been there two 

 years the lady developed a very painful eruption or 

 eczema on the face, which, in the course of a few weeks, 

 caused the eyes, nose, and lips to swell to an extraordinary 



