256 JOURNAL, BOMBA 7 NATURAL .HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



natural hue. My former experience at once suggested to me the 

 idea that these swellings might be due to marking -nut in some way 

 absorbed into the blood ; and so I questioned the patient whether he 

 had ever come in contact with marking-nut in some way or other. 

 After repeated questionings the patient recollected that he was lately 

 using for some time a tooth-powder which contained a charcoal of these 

 nuts. On learning this history I told him to stop using that tooth- 

 powder and gave him one of my usual antidotes for application to the 

 swellings which gradually disappeared in a few days. Lininentum 

 calcis or a weak - ointment of Bicarbonate of Soda are generally 

 serviceable when these swellings are fresh, but when they get older I 

 generally prefer an ointment of Rhus toxicodendron on Homoeopathic 

 principles, for Rhus toxicodendron has a similar action on the skin 

 and a weak ointment of its tincture very rapidly disperses all 

 anacardium irritation and swellings and ulcerations (caused by 

 local application of the nut). I have lately learnt that the ashes of the 

 bark of the marking-nut tree is a good application for all the cutaneous 

 lesions caused by the nut. 



" Case No. 2.— A few months ago a man came to me from Kolha- 

 pur with a hard, reddish and slightly painful swelling on the tip and 

 alee of the nose, a part of the cheeks and upper lip. It had remained 

 persistently, shifting its place a little now and then, and becoming 

 aggravated or ameliorated by various external applications prescribed 

 by Doctors and Vaidyas but never disappearing altogether. As it had 

 remained nearly two years so obstinately he was alarmed and came 

 here for consultation. He told me that the hard, reddish swelling on 

 the nose and surrounding parts was diagnosed as lupus by a renowned 

 medical man but his treatment had failed. In investigating the causes 

 of the swelling I happened to ask him, among other questions, whether 

 he had ever used marking-nut internally. To this he answered 

 affirmatively, and said that he had on several occasions consumed a 

 nostrum containing these nuts prescribed for dyspepsia, constipation 

 and general debility. This at once put me on the right track and my 

 diagnosis of the case was Anacardium rash. But I regret to say that 

 the diagnosis of the case was not completed by treatment as the patient 

 did not remain here any longer. 



