82 
Poisoning  by  Cypripedium, 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\       Feb.  1875. 
the  Agave  in  Mexico,  a  strong  spirit  is  prepared  from  the  sap,  known 
as  mezcal,  also  a  kind  of  brandy  of  80  degrees  of  strength,  a  sweet, 
thick  substance  resembling  honey,  a  concentrated  gum  used  in  medicine, 
brown  sugar,  loaf  sugar,  sugar  candy,  and  vinegar  of  very  excellent 
quality,  so  that  the  Jgave^  the  value  to  us  of  which  is  mostly  for  its 
fibre,  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the  most  important  economic  plants  of  Mexico. 
— Pharm.  'Journ.  and  Trans. ^  Dec.  \lth^  1874. 
POISONING  BY  CYPRIPEDIUM. 
BY   H.   H.  BABCOCK. 
Working  botanists  have  so  often  been  poisoned  by  Rhus  toxicoden- 
dron that  many  of  them  have  come  to  regard  it  as  their  special  bane. 
In  the  five  seasons  commencing  with  1868,  I  was  particularly  care- 
ful not  to  touch  this  poisonous  plant,  not  to  pluck  a  specimen  growing 
in  its  immediate  vicinity,  nor  to  receive  from  the  hands  of  another 
person  a  freshly-gathered  plant,  for  fear  it  might  have  come  in  contact 
with  Rhus.  In  spite  of  these  precautions,  in  the  latter  part  of  May 
or  first  of  June  in  each  year,  I  was  poisoned  so  severely  as  to  be  con- 
fined to  my  room  for  several  days.  In  June,  1872,  after  gathering 
many  specimens  of  Cypripedium  spectahile^  I  observed  that  my  hands 
were  stained  with  the  purplish  secretion  of  the  glandular  hairs  with 
which  its  stem  and  leaves  are  densely  clothed,  and  shortly  after  expe- 
rienced a  peculiar  irritation  about  my  eyes.  The  next  day  my  whole 
face  presented  the  appearance  of  a  severe  case  of  Rhus  poisoning.  On 
reviewing  my  notes  of  the  previous  years,  I  found  that  in  each  season 
the  poisoning  had  appeared  on  the  day  after  I  had  collected  Cypripedium 
spectahile  or  C.  puhescens.  In  1873  and  1874,  I  collected  more  exten- 
sively than  ever  before,  but  suspecting  that  my  previous  sufferings  had 
been  caused  by  these  two  species  of  Cypripedium  rather  than  the  Rhus, 
took  no  unusual  pains  to  avoid  the  latter,  but  refrained  from  touching 
either  of  the  former  with  the  bare  hand.  The  result  was  what  I  had 
expected,  for  I  escaped  entirely  the  poisoning  that  I  had  begun  to 
regard  as  inevitable,  and  am  now  convinced  that  upon  myself,  at  least, 
Cypripedium  spectahile  and  C.  puhescens  are  capable  of  producing  effects 
similar  to  those  caused  by  Rhus  toxicodendron.  Is  it  not  possible  that 
others,  also,  have  wrongly  attributed  to  Rhus  the  annoyance  caused  by 
these  plants  hitherto  considered  inoffensive  \  A  decisive  answer,  either 
affirmative  or  negative,  must  depend  upon  the  results  of  future  experi- 
ment.   Who  will  undertake  it  \ — The  Pharmacist.^  J^^">  1875. 
Chicago,  December  15 
