ON  THE  POISON-OAK  AND  ITS  ANTIDOTE. 
415 
went  cauterization  and  blistering  ;  she  took  mercury  and  other 
powerful  remedies,  iodine,  sarsaparilla — all  to  no  purpose.  Her 
hands  were  covered  with  deep  ulcers,  and  her  wrists  and  arms 
with  an  eruption  that  tormented  her  day  and  night.  Nothing 
relieved  her.  She  married  in  the  mean-time,  and  had  a  family 
of  fine,  healthy  children,  but  she  did  not  get  rid  of  her  affliction. 
At  length,  she  believing  that  the  disease  was  not  "  salt-rheum" 
nor  anything  more  or  less  than  the  effects  of  poison-oak,  was 
induced  to  use  the  remedy  that  I  have  described;  and  a  very 
few  applications  were  sufficient  to  heal  up  the  ulcers  and  cure 
her  entirely.  She  has  never  been  troubled  with  any  cutaneous 
eruption  since  that  time,  although  several  years  have  now  elapsed. 
Her  account  of  her  case  induced  me  to  use  the  plant,  which 
I  have  done  frequently  since  with  the  happiest  effects.  One 
gentleman  of  my  acquaintance,  who  is  very  susceptible  to  the 
poison-oak,  was  poisoned  on  the  face,  hands,  etc.,  and  the  dis- 
ease did  not  yield  to  sugar  of  lead,  hartshorn,  warm  lotions  or 
any  other  of  the  commonly  used  remedies.  But  a  few  applica- 
tions of  the  docoction  of  Grindelia  removed  it  entirely.  It  is 
said  that  when  Fremont  was  here  with  his  soldiers  they  camped 
on  the  flat  below  the  town  among  the  poison- oak,  and  many  of 
his  men  were  badly  poisoned.  The  trouble  in  many  cases  did  not 
yield  to  the  prescriptions  of  the  physicians,  and  it  was  relieved 
only  by  using  this  remedy.  But  aside  from  rumor  or  hearsay  T 
am  cognizant  of  six  cases  in  which  the  effects  of  poison-oak  have 
yielded  to  the  Grindelia  when  other  remedies  have  failed.  Now 
it  cannot  be  said  that  the  effects  of  the  Grindelia,  as  stated  above, 
were  imaginary,  or  those  cures  accidental :  for  the  disease  pro- 
duced by  the  poison  oak  is  specific  and  sui  generis,  a  cutaneous 
disease  palpable  and  severe,  that  is  produced  by  a  specific  veg- 
etable poison,  and  hence  does  not  at  all  (as  mary  be  said  of  many 
other  diseases,)  depend  upon  the  imagination  or  moral  state  of 
the  patient  either  for  its  cause  or  cure. 
It  may  not  be  amiss  to  say  in  conclusion,  that  the  Grindelia 
is  used  also  by  the  people  of  this  country  as  a  remedy  for  other 
cutaneous  diseases  that  are  characterised  by  heat  and  itching  ; 
such  as  nettle-rash,  salt-rheum,  etc.,  but  I  have  no  means  ot 
knowing  its  effects  in  these  diseases. 
Monterey,  Oct.  10,  1859.  Pacific  Sentinel 
