The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-12-09

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together control it's movements. APP
parently starting in one direction, it
will suddenly turn off to one side, and
perhaps run into a fence or building.
After it has acquired a taste for the
plant, it continues to eat it, search
ing for it everywhere, and after a few
months or years dies.
Allied to the loco is what is known
as rattlebox, rattleweed or wild pea,
familiar plant from the Atlantic Coast
to the Missouri River, and even beyond
in New Mexico. 1t acts somewhat as
loco does, but is much less violent.
Two species of euphorbia are poison
GUS to eat or to handle. The bitter,
milky juice when it touches the skin
causes redness, itching, and often a
breaking out of pimples and blisters,
while if by any chance the seeds are
taken internally in any quantity, death
may ensue. In certain sections where
the bees resort largely to the blossoms
of the euphorbia, the honey is made
unstable, being disagreable to the
taste and mildly poisonous.
Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison
sumach, are found over most of the
country, and are perhaps the best
known and most distressing of the
poisonous plants of America. Investi-
cations recently made show that the
poison is a non-volatile oil, found in
all parts of the plant. Like all oils, it
is insoluble in water, and therefore
cannot be washed off the skin with
water alone. Alcohol, however, read
lily removes it, and its effect is de-
stroyed by an alcoholic solution of
sugar Of lead. Mr.. V. X. Chestnut, au-
thor Of an interesting pamphlet on
poisonous plants of the United States,
published by the Agricultural Depart
ment, has this to say about the effect
of the oil on the skin:
Numerous experiments show con-
clusively that the oil produced pre-
cisely the same effect as does the plant
itself. When o very minute amount is
placed upon the skin, it is gradually
absorbed in the course of day or so,
and within certain limits the effect is
proportional to the time of contact.
In an experiment performed by the
writer, the oil was applied to four
places ON the left wrist, and these
were carefully guarded to prevent
spreading. At the end of an hour one
of the spots was thoroughly washed
by successive applications of alcohol.
In three hours the oil from a second
was washed off in the same manner,
and the others were cleansed three
hours later. There was little or no
effect on the first; that ON the second
was more marked, but did not equal
that on the last two, which was about
the same in each. The spots were
within an inch of each other, but re-
manned wholly distinct, a fact which
very clearly shows that the affection is
not spread by the blood Subsequent
applications of an alcoholic solution
of sugar of lead gave speedy and per-
menant relief"
The best remedy is saturated solu-
ton of fifty or seventy-five per cent.
proof alcohol with powdered sugar of
lead. The most effective means of get
ting rid of the poison ivy is by uproot-
ing the plants. This, of course, can
only be practiced by persons not sus-
sumach, also called poison dogwood,
poison elder, and poison ash, is a tree
rather than a vine. 1t is not less dam
gerous than the more common poison
ivy.
Certain buckeyes-especi the red
buckeye-are more or less poisonous;
cattle sometimes are killed by eating
the fruit of the red buckeye. The al
lied horse chestnut and Ohio buckeye
are poisonous to some extent, while
on the other hand some of the Califor-
MIA Indians use the fruit of the Cali
fornia buckeye for food, after remov-
ing the poison by roasting and leach
ing.
Two species Of water hemlock-one
found from the Atlantic to the Rocky
Mountains, and the other in the cen
trail region and toward the Pacific
Coast-are violent poisons. They are
sometimes eaten by cattle and some
times by children, as they have pleas
ant taste and an aromatic odor. The
root and root stock are most violent
poisons.
The poison hemlock is an old world
plant which has become naturalized in
the United States. This is believed
to be the poison that Socrates drank,
and so is historically very old.
The black nightshade, known also as
common nightshade, is an introduced
vvaad which ic raparoIIv dist1sihutod