STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



produce blindness for several hours or days; the irritation 

 of the skin is very great. Sometimes the poison extends 

 over the arms and body and legs; fever, headache and 

 even delirium will affect the patient, as in cases of severe 

 erysipelas. Where the constitution is at all unsound, the 

 effects are worse to overcome, and it is one of the evils 

 induced by the virus that it produces in many cases a 

 chronic disposition to break out, year after year, at the 

 time when the plant is in its most flourishing condition. 

 This has generally taken place in June and July. Some 

 homeopathists are said to treat the case with doses of Rhus 

 Toxicodendron, according to their system; others again use 

 belladonna. Country doctors give alkalies soda, ammonia 

 and cooling medicine's. The old settlers apply the succulent 

 juicy leaves and stalks of the wild Canadian Balsam 

 (Impatiens fulva-) and other cooling herbs -with thick cream; 

 but I should think that limewater, given with milk in- 

 wardly and applied outwardly to the skin, as in burns, 

 might prove a good remedy. Where the disease caused by 

 this poisonous plant is so often met with in country places 

 the most ready and certain remedies should be made known 

 to the public. Physicians who have had no experience of 

 the disease produced by the Poison Ivy are sometimes at a 

 loss how to treat it successfully. 



Every one should be acquainted with the appearance of 

 the Poison Ivy, so that it may be avoided when out in the 

 country among weeds and thickets, rocks and waters. 



This wicked little plant is not without its attractions to 

 the eye; it varies in height from about one foot to two, but 

 will climb, when meeting with support, to ten and fifteen 

 feet.* I have seen it against a stone building, growing along 

 with the Virginia Creeper up to the windows of a lofty 



* This is the variety radicans. 



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