THE POISON IVY OP CALIFORNIA.
[TO THY EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—The very interesting letter in your issue of Decem- ber 21st from your correspondent " A Sufferer " may perhaps
create the impression that the poison ivy, unless artificially transplanted, grows only in California. As a matter of fact, it is fairly well known all over the United States, including even the neighbourhood of the Eastern cities. I spent a week - this autumn in the outskirts of Philadelphia, and was the victim of a very severe attack of ivy poisoning, contracted • either on the golf links or amongst the undergrowth in the paddock of my host's garden. The symptoms were identically the same as those described by your correspondent, with one important exception. "A Sufferer" states that the attack of the poisoning begins always in the forehead and eyes, and travels downwards ; but in my case it began in the feet, then in the hands, and finally in the forehead and eyelids, one eye being completely closed and the other nearly so. Except for a slight attack in the lower part of the legs, the rest of my body was entirely untouched, though both hands and feet and head were swollen to an enormous size, with intolerable irritation. Possibly your correspondent may have weak eyes, which would no doubt be sufficient to account for the different progress of the disease; but probably further investigation will prove that the pollen from the poison ivy attacks that portion of the body which is the nearest to it or the most exposed. In my own case there is little doubt that I contracted the disease when trampling in the undergrowth. Your correspondent mentions the ease with which the disease is contracted and the fact that most individuals are immune. I know instances in America where persons dare not go into the country at all for this reason, although other members of the same family can even handle the plant with impunity, and I have heard of cases where persons merely passing rapidly through the air in a motor- car have been badly attacked. If any of your readers know of a remedy, such information would be greatly appreciated, as doubtless many of your readers, like myself, pay an annual visit to the United States. The treatment prescribed to me by a New York doctor did more harm than good and only increased the irritation. I, however, found relief by constant hot sea-water baths and by strong doses of liver medicine. I find that the disease is almost unknown to English doctors, and those to whom I have mentioned it seemed to take my remarks with a very large grain of salt. Surely now that the poison is known to be our old friend Blau tox. the antidote ought not to be difficult to find.—I am, Sir, &c., CESTRIAN.
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