DERMATITIS VENENATA

Abstract

Among the luxurious and rich tropical flora there are several plants, the latex, secretions or appendages of which are injurious to the human skin. These plants grow wild in the thick forests of the Antilles and in the country around the towns and cities. The well-known Rhus toxicondendron does not exist in the tropics, but there are other plants, such as the comocladias, that produce dermatitis very similar to if not identical with that produced by the ivy, and many others that produce skin reactions that vary from erythema and pruritus to acute vesicular dermatitis with severe general disturbance. These plants are little known to the medical profession, although their irritating and poisonous properties have been observed for many years. We have endeavored to make a preliminary study, from the botanical, physiologic and chemical point of view—not a complete and exhaustive study of these interesting plants and the clinical phenomena