====== Toxicological Effects====== {{anchor:s2}}OF RHUS TOXICODENDRON.** {{anchor:s3}}BY N. M. PAYNE, BATH, ME. {{anchor:s4}}In November of 1857, I accidentally spilled some of the tincture of Rhus toxicodendron on the back, and ring finger of my left hand. {{anchor:s5}}After the lapse of about 24 hours, itching, and burning commenced, lasting from 1/2 to 2 hours. {{anchor:s6}}After about 36 hours, swelling of the parts, with violent itching and burning, increased on touching or moving the parts affected, as if pierced by hot needles. {{anchor:s7}}White transparent vesicles appeared on the highly red and inflamed skin. {{anchor:s8}}Rheumatic pains in the knee joints, extending to the ankles, lasting from 4 to 8 hours. {{anchor:s9}}Violent throbbing, tearing, rending pains in the head. {{anchor:s10}}Burning pressure in the left eye. {{anchor:s11}}Biting and itching in the external surface of the lid, below and around the left eye, also on the cheeks and nose; nose feels sore as if abraded; sore feeling in the left nostril. {{anchor:s12}}Smarting and prickling around the mouth, with vesicular watery eruption below the vermillion border of the lower lip; lobule of the left ear swollen. {{anchor:s13}}Itching and burning in the rim and lobule of the left ear; dim sightedness; appearance as if gauze was before the eyes. {{anchor:s14}}Vesicular eruption on the cheek, with intense itching and burning. {{anchor:s15}}Violent burning, itching, and prickling in the swollen eyelids, and lobules of the ears. {{anchor:s16}}The epidermis peeled from the cheeks, leaving the parts hot and rough. {{anchor:s17}}Soreness in the corners of the mouth. {{anchor:s18}}Swelling of the prepuce, and glans penis. {{anchor:s19}}Violent itching, burning, prickling, and cutting around the root of the penis, and in the prepuce: transparent swelling extending from the prepuce to the scrotum -more on the left side, with watery vesicles, discharging a transparent fluid. {{anchor:s20}}Prepuce very sore, looks and feels like a scald. {{anchor:s21}}Great desire to sleep; constant drowsiness; with itching in the eyelids. {{anchor:s22}}Burning pain in the knee joints, and lower extremities; chills after 72 hours. {{anchor:s23}}Objects were seen double, and sometimes only one half of the object could be seen. {{anchor:s24}}Objects appeared to be removed only one half of the real distance. {{anchor:s25}}Intense itching in the eye ball. {{anchor:s26}}Feels desponding; don't like to be spoken to, nervousness; starts suddenly at every slight noise. {{anchor:s27}}Fourth day; itching, burning, and stinging increased. {{anchor:s28}}Rending pain in the diaphragm, more so in the horizontal position. {{anchor:s29}}Pain in the knees and lower extremities; dull throbbing pain in the head, at intervals. {{anchor:s30}}Itching, burning, biting, and stinging, shifting from the face to the genitals, and from the genitals to the left hand. {{anchor:s31}}Left eye closed from swollen lids, with feeling as if a piece of glass or sand was in it. {{anchor:s32}}Fifth day; severe pain in the diaphragm, and pit of the stomach, so distressing I could not lie in bed. {{anchor:s33}}Pain in the hips, knees and head; swelling about the head; swelling of the left hand and prepuce greatly increased; watery vesicles nearly covering the left hand. {{anchor:s34}}Rheumatic pains in the hands. {{anchor:s35}}The itching and swelling extended to the groin, and inside of the thigh, pubes and abdomen, as far as the navel. {{anchor:s36}}Sixth day; itching and swelling of the left ear and lobule of the right ear, also of the left hand, increased to bursting of the skin. {{anchor:s37}}Swelling of the inguinal glands. {{anchor:s38}}Throbbing pain in the left hand, at intervals. {{anchor:s39}}Intense itching and stinging in the palm of the left hand, at intervals, worse in the evening; throbbing pain in the left hand extending to the elbow joint. {{anchor:s40}}Itching worse in the night and evening, also in the morning, from 1 to 2 hours, not so much in the day time. {{anchor:s41}}Swelling of the inguinal glands, after 8 days. {{anchor:s42}}Small boils on the pubes, gradually increasing in size and number. {{anchor:s43}}At midnight, intense itching, burning, and stinging, suddenly attacking the palm of the left hand, and extending to the elbow, lasting about two hours. {{anchor:s44}}In the palm of the left hand there was a considerable elevation, studded with itching vesicles, which burst and discharged serum in considerable quantity. {{anchor:s45}}Ninth day; the itching was more severe in the morning, and consequently there was at this time, a freer discharge of serum. {{anchor:s46}}Pubic region very sore, from the great number of boils. {{anchor:s47}}On the 10th day; itching in the palm of the right hand; vesicles filled with opaque matter on the right hand; at midnight there was severe itching and prickling in the right hand as if it were asleep, lasting from 1 1/2 to 2 hours; left eye closed; very sore around the right eye; intense itching in right, groin; the little boils on the lower part of the abdomen, in the groins and on the inner parts of the thighs, were very sore and suppurated. {{anchor:s48}}On the 11th day, itching in the palm of the hand ceased, became very sore to touch, and the vesicular discharge became yellowish. {{anchor:s49}}On the 12th day, aching pains in the legs, inability to rest in any position but for a moment. {{anchor:s50}}Great drowsiness, languor in the afternoon, requiring great exertion to move about. {{anchor:s51}}The abdomen, thighs and groins are very sore, and red; boils the size of a walnut, discharging pus. {{anchor:s52}}Cold feet and legs; aching pains in the hollow of the feet. {{anchor:s53}}Thirteenth day, unusual restlessness at night. {{anchor:s54}}Smarting, throbbing, burning pain in the boils on the pubes, and abdomen; chills and entire sleeplessness. {{anchor:s55}}Fourteenth day; soreness returned around the left eye, left eye sore and swollen as if bruised; upper lid much swollen, and severe itching. {{anchor:s56}}Dull, aching pain in the pubic region. {{anchor:s57}}Mons veneris swollen to twice the normal size. 16th day; boils increased in size one third. 17th day; distressing pain in the stomach, as if closed, and being split open with a knife; could not remain in a horizontal position; violent headache. {{anchor:s58}}Severe itching and stinging in all the parts affected with the poison. 21st, 22d and 23d day; all the symptoms seemed to be renewed at this period. {{anchor:s59}}Itching, burning, stinging, and smarting at intervals; the parts were very sore to touch, dry and cracked; violent head ache. 24th day; intolerable itching on the pubic region. {{anchor:s60}}Boil on the edge of the upper lid of the left eye, the size of a pea, the eye again entirely closed. 30th day; boil on the left eyelid discharging freely, with abatement of swelling; new boils, in great numbers, are constantly appearing in the groins, on the legs and abdomen, and increasing in size, some half as large as a hen's egg. {{anchor:s61}}Inguinal glands swollen to a very great size. {{anchor:s62}}Pains in the legs alternating with cold feet; hollow of the feet ache with the cold. {{anchor:s63}}Thirty-fifth day; constipation with continual urging to stool. {{anchor:s64}}Ineffectual stool with a great deal of flatulence, and rumbling in the abdomen; incessant headache, ineffectual desire for stool immediately after eating. {{anchor:s65}}Pain in the epigastrium. {{anchor:s66}}Forty-fifth day; skin peeled from the left hand entirely. {{anchor:s67}}Itching intolerable. {{anchor:s68}}Skin peeling from all the parts affected. {{anchor:s69}}Constant urging and straining at stool. {{anchor:s70}}Pains in the knees and legs at short intervals, very sore. {{anchor:s71}}Many of the above symptoms did not disappear until after the sixtieth day. {{anchor:s72}}More than twenty years ago I was thoroughly poisoned by Rhus toxicodendron when gathering the fresh plant, or shrub. {{anchor:s73}}My whole body, from the top of my head even to the ends of my toes, was enormously swollen; for eight or ten days my eyes were closed. {{anchor:s74}}Penis so badly swollen, could not void urine for five days; the symptoms were the same as those above described, only much more severe. {{anchor:s75}}About thirty days after the poisoning, a swelling came on the left side of my neck under the ramus of the lower jaw, which increased to the size of a man's fist, so large that it turned my face directly to one side, causing my chin to rest on the right shoulder. {{anchor:s76}}The swelling was quite hard, and disappeared in about two months, without suppurating. {{anchor:s77}}But the effects of the poison remained for eight years; when, after a typhoid fever (so called by the doctors,) which continued for thirteen weeks, all symptoms of the poisoning disappeared and never returned. {{anchor:s78}}During the eight years, continued constipation with violent headache, loss of appetite; almost constant pain in the epigastric region; sallow complexion; weakness of the joints of the lower extremities; restlessness and sleepless nights, with drowsiness during the day; great despondency; severe headache in the morning, immediately after rising, and great aversion to any kind of labor. ---- ====== DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR ====== ^ Source: | The AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC REVIEW Vol. 01 No. 06, 1859, pages 251-254 | ^ Description: | Toxicological Effects of Rhus Toxicodendron. | ^ Remedies: | Rhus Toxicodendron | ^ Author: | Payne, N.M. | ^ Year: | 1859 | ^ Editing: | errors only; interlinks; formatting | ^ Attribution: | Legatum Homeopathicum |