DERMATITIS CAUSED BY DICTAMNUS ALBUS (GAS PLANT)

Abstract

This report is made because Dictamnus albus is a rather commonly cultivated garden plant and we have been unable to find any mention of its irritating property in the literature. Furthermore, the requirement of the sun's rays to produce the irritation is of distinct interest. In July 1935 a man noticed an eruption on his forearms (fig. 1). Two days previously he had been working in his garden in the hot sun. Rhus toxicodendron was suspected as the cause, but the patient was certain that there was none in or near his garden. He remembered a similar outbreak on the skin which had appeared in the early summer two years previously. There was no eruption on the hands, but this was readily understood since gloves had been worn. Recalling a chance inquiry made some years previously as to whether or not the gas plant could irritate the skin (a question