CHAPTER XCIV 



DERMATITIS VENENATA 



Definition — Remarks — Historical — Climatology — ^Etiology — Symptoma- 

 to logy — Diagnosis — Treatment — Prophylaxis — Varieties — Rhus 

 group — Euphorbia group — Urtica group — Tectona group — Rue group 

 — Buffalo bean group — Little-known group — Doubtful group — Refer- 

 ences. 



Definition. — The term ' dermatitis venenata ' includes a number 

 of inflammatory skin lesions caused by the irritative action of 

 poisonous principles contained in certain plants. 



Remarks. — By the above definition it will be observed that the 

 term ' dermatitis venenata ' is here used in the restricted sense of 

 being only caused by plants, leaving the dermatitis caused by 

 animals to be treated in the chapter dealing with the Dermato- 

 zoiases (p. 2200). Neither does the definition include dermatitis 

 medicamentosa, which is due to drugs administered internally or 

 externally, nor does it include dermatitis factitia, which is caused 

 artificially — e.g., beggars rubbing in Ranunculus scleratus Linnaeus 

 to produce sores for the purpose of inducing pity and the money 

 usually associated therewith or recruits or soldiers utilizing various 

 plants for purposes of malingering. 



Historical. — From very ancient times it has been known that 

 certain plants have stinging properties — e.g., many species of the 

 genus Urtica, of which U. urens Linnseus and U. divica Linnaeus 

 are well known in Europe — but the effects of which are slight in 

 comparison with the results produced by the species found in the 

 East Indies — e.g., U. urentissima Comm, U. cr enulata jKoxhurgh, 

 U. stimulans Linnaeus, and U. ferox Forster. One of the earliest 

 remarks on the subject is to be found in Kaempfer's ' Amoenitatum 

 exoticarum,' which was published in 1712, and in which he refers 

 to the action of lacquer varnish on the skin. 



From that time onwards scattered references may be found in 

 books on travel, on botany, materia medica, poisons, as well as in 

 textbooks on skin diseases. Thus in 1862 Van Hasselt made some 

 references to the subject, as did Bazin in the same year, while 

 Piffard in 1881 made many references to plants supposed to be causal 

 agents. 



In 1887 White gathered the whole subject together in his work 

 on * Dermatitis Venenata,' and following this there was a leading 

 article in the Lancet on the dermatitis produced hy Primula obconica 



2151 



