ii 



THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 107 



extreme. They are by no means, however, what may be considered 

 unexpected." Some may escape the virulent action of a violent 

 poison. It is best, however, from a scientific point of view, to recognize 

 the possibility of serious suffering from the incautious use or handling, 

 even if it were for experimental purposes, of the Cashew-nut oleo-resin. 

 Let me now proceed to the consideration of a base of poisoning by 

 the Cashew-nut, reported in an American Journal ^ edited by Horatio 

 C. Wood and Robert Meade Smith. It is stated in this journal that "In 

 1881 a gentleman connected with the United States National Museum 

 while organizing the Materia Medica collection, came across some 

 nuts unlabelled. He sawed one of them through to make a specimen, 

 and got some of the tar-like substance between the shell and ker- 

 nel on his hands." What I would say is : — Would-be-arrangers of 

 Materia Medica Museums beware I for see what happened thereafter. 

 " A few days after, f the face and hands became violently inflamed, a 

 vesicular eruption accompanying the inflammation and intense itching, 

 The face was of deep orange colour, eyes closed by swelling. The 

 inflammation extended to the edge of, but not to, the scalp." Fearful 

 ordeal this ! The poor sufferer went through his agonies " confined to 

 the house for a week " (it might have been longer) suffering from 

 intolerable itching, In ten days he recovered, the skin desquamating 

 from the affected parts. The nuts were afterwards identified as 

 Cashew-nut. " The affection corresponded exactly with the Rhus 

 poisoning " says Dr. Prentiss, m.d., Washington, who records the case 

 together with two other cases of poisioning from the congener of the 

 Cashew- nut, M. vernicifera and R» toxicodendron. Be it noted to the 

 discredit of Homoeopathy that one of the cases of poisoning from 

 R. vernicifera occurred as the result of an administration of a 

 Homoeopathic pellet labelled '* Rhus." The other occurred from the 

 Japanese lacquer, the sap of R. toxicodendron. Vesicular eruption 

 accompanied with swelling is the prevailing characteristic of such 

 irritation. The learned Professor wrongly says in this paper that there 

 are two species of the Cashew-nut — Anacardium occidentale and 

 A. orientate. My readers are already aware that A. orientate is not 

 a species of the Cashew-nut plant, but a distinct genus described by 

 me as Semecarpus anacardium in a former volume of this Journal. 



* The Therapeutic Gazette, p. 448, vol. v, 3rd Series, Whole Series, volume xiii, 1889. 



t There is seldom such delay in the development of the consequences, for, though the 

 vesicating element is evanescent, the effect is quick generally speakmg. There may be skins, 

 ho-wever, which are slow in being acted upon, as there are brains slow in " taking in an idea." 



