Crusty eruption near the left wing of the nose and below the nose (after forty-eight hours). Eruption near the left commissure of the mouth, with the aching at the left eyebrow (eleventh day).
Very slight eruption about the mouth and chin. By means of a magnifying glass, a rash was seen on the scrotum and also along the thigh, with moisture on the perinaeum (eleventh day).
The itching and swelling extended to the groin, and inside of the thigh, pubes, and abdomen, as far as the navel (fifth day). Burning-itching eruption on both hands. Severe and almost intolerable itching of the legs and feet, especially the lower half of the leg, the ankle, instep, and upper part of the foot; scratching produces severe smarting and burning, 11 P.M. (nineteenth day); followed at 8 A.M. by a burning and smarting eruption on the insteps and lower portion of the legs, and burning smarting and redness on the upper surfaces of the feet in the metatarsal region (twentieth day). Severe itching of the lower half of the legs, in the evening, followed in the afternoon of the next day by a severely itching eruption on the same parts (sixth day). Eruptions. Moist. It affects the skin of most people in a very painful manner, and the inflammation speedily spreads from one part of the body to another. Some people are so affected that their faces could not be recognized, and others are not affected by it. After having been once injured, they are ever after very susceptible to the poison. Even passing to the leeward of a bush on a windy day, or through the smoke of a fire in which it is burning, will “bring the poison to the surface” again. So poisonous is it, that it pollutes the air where it grows. Children, and even grown-up people, who are gathering berries, or otherwise approaching its vicinity, are often badly poisoned. Their faces are frequently swelled until their eyes are shut; the neck, hands, and arms covered with inflamed vesicles, the cuticle highly inflamed, and not infrequently constitutional symptoms are observed, resembling those of “milk sickness.” On breaking a stem of the Rhus a milky fluid exudes, which is exceedingly poisonous, and if applied to the skin, will produce effects like that of nitrate of silver. A black welt is produced, which in a few hours becomes sore, destroys the cuticle, which sloughs off, and upon healing leaves a circular cicatrix. Those persons who are constitutionally liable to the influence of this poison experience from it a train of symptoms very similar to those which result from exposure to the Rhus vernix; these consist in itching, redness, and tumefaction of the affected parts, particularly of the face, succeeded by blisters, suppuration, aggravated swelling, heat, pain, and fever; when the disease is at its height, the skin becomes covered with a crust, and the swelling is so great as in many instances to close the eyes and almost obliterate the features; the symptoms begin in a few hours after exposure, and are commonly at the height on the fourth or fifth day, after which desquamation begins to take place, and the distress, in most instances, to diminish.
Sometimes the eruption is less general, and confines itself to the part which has been exposed to contact with the poison. The symptoms of this malady, though often highly distressing, are rarely fatal. I have, nevertheless, been told of cases in which death appeared to be the consequence of this poison. Small blisters, exactly like Willan’s vesicles, except that they were associated with greater swelling, at first between the fingers, and then over the whole hand (second day). Vesicles, most of which contain a milky but some of which also contain a clear liquid, become confluent; this condition lasts three days, after which the skin desquamates. A burning eruption of small blisters, filled with water, with redness of the skin of the whole body, except on the scalp, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. Red spots of the size of a pea, with small vesicles in the center. A wound becomes inflamed and covered with small vesicles (sixth day). Erysipelas, with numerous vesicles, that burst, and secreted for eight days a slimy liquid. After the lapse of about twenty-four hours, itching and burning commenced, lasting from half an hour to two hours. After about thirty-six hours, swelling of the parts, with violent itching and burning, increased on touching or moving the parts affected, as if pierced by hot needles; white transparent vesicles appeared on the highly red and inflamed skin. Covered from head to foot with a fine red vesicular rash, itching and burning terribly, especially in the joints; worse at night, causing constant scratching, with little or no relief, and which felt very hard upon pressure with the finger; skin burning hot (second day). Pemphigus eruption followed the eschar, such as might be caused by nitrate of silver, that healed only after two weeks. There were some small pimples, coalescing into blisters the size of a split pea, filled with yellow watery fluid, with intense itching; worse at night after 12 P.M.; the only relief he can get is to rub it with something rough until the blisters are open; the case was of three weeks’ standing. Numerous vesicles appear on different parts of the body, varying from two or three lines to one-fourth inch in diameter (second day); vesicles dry and disappear by desquamation (third day). Scores were attacked by an erysipelas eruption affecting the hands and arms, the feet and legs, the face, and sometimes the whole person. It varied in extent and in severity from a small patch with trivial itching to an extended surface with enormous swelling and excruciating suffering. Pruritus, tingling, smarting, stinging, burning were the sensations described. On a red and swollen base of inflamed skin, vesicles and blebs, from the size of a pins head to a pea, were crowded together, and when these broke and dried, eczematous crusts remained. Sufficient irritation carried the inflammation on to ulceration. I felt on the ears and hands an itching similar to the bites of insects; it extended over the face, principally around the eyes, on the cheek-bone, and around the brow; by degrees, in the space of twenty-four hours, all these parts were perceptibly swollen, and on the ears the swelling was accompanied with a considerably redness (after eleven days).
Took a dose of Rhus. All the symptoms became much worse, so as to occasion great pain; similar symptoms were manifested on the parts of the body that were covered, more especially on the scrotum, which became red first on the left side, then all over, became much swollen, and caused intense itching; they then extended to the left thigh, only the latter did not swell, but became covered with red spots, with a burning itching, quite insupportable, much more painful than the stings from nettles; at last, yielding to the insufferable itching, I rubbed myself slightly with the hand to procure a little relief.
On the thirteenth day I was so changed by the swelling that I astonished every one; my hands, but only on the dorsal side and on the first phalanges of the fingers, were much swollen, and the swelling ascended even to the middle of the forearm, so that the wrist of my shirt cut me; there was also observed a great number os isolated vesicles, filled with a white fluid, which were doubly as painful when scratched; the itching and red spots on the left leg extended also to the left arm. The swelling and itching on the ears and face diminished, and ceased entirely up to the sixteenth day or thereabouts; the ears became white, and desquamation took place; the hands, more especially the right, were still swollen, but no vesicles were any longer produced; on the contrary, at the lower extremities, the symptoms continued to be developed; on the left leg the red spots descended beyond the ankle, which also began to become swollen; on the inner side of the two thighs, as also at the external sides of the right thigh, there were formed red patches, which were extremely itchy, similar to patches of measles, but larger, and without a rounded form. I had to do violence to myself not to scratch; for every time yielded to the temptation I was punished for it, and yet I would willing have continued.
It was only on the twentieth day that the improvement in the symptoms was at all perceptible; the swelling of the right hand disappeared; however, the itching continued, though less burning.
Some days later the spots which served as the seat for the vesicles scaled off; the desquamation extended gradually over the whole external surface of the hand, as if the epidermis had been burned; I observed no such appearance on the legs. At the present time (the twenty-eighth day) this symptom also has almost disappeared; however, I always feel an itching in this hand, just as in the left leg, which was swollen. His hands, especially the lateral surfaces of the fingers, were thickly covered with vesicles, and his face and genitals were badly swollen. The following day the eruption appeared upon the arms and about the thighs and abdomen, and continued to spread for several days, until at last it presented the followed appearances: The face and ears were of a lurid-red color, greatly swollen, and dripping with fluid exudation. The neck, chest, and abdominal wall were also reddened, and occupied by large patches of flattened papules and vesicles, and by moist excoriations. The genitals were enormously distended by oedema, and the scrotum was running with serum. The arms and legs were also; oedematous, and largely occupied by fields of the peculiarly characteristic vesicles of the affection. The patient was of a highly nervous temperament, and suffered tortures from the severe itching which accompanied the eruption.
Born in 1837in Westminster, Vermont. . He was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy
Dr. Allen compiled the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica over the course of 10 years.
In 1881 Allen published A Critical Revision of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica.