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to the holidays. Therefore. 1 am submitting these words to those health care practitioners out there in the real world who may be confronted with people, big and small, who ingest berries, leaves, flowers, stems of holiday plants. Poinsettia: The poinsettia was introduced in the United States in 1828 by Joel R. Poinsett, then U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. This plant, one of the most typical symbols of the Yuletide, suffers from bad public relations. Every Christmas the debate resumes about this beautiful plant's toxicity; the complete answer is still not in. However, a reasonable judgment concerning its potential dangers can be made on the basis of its history. Yes. I know that the literature says that in 1919 a child in Hawaii died after eating poinsettia leaves. So what, must the plant be maligned forever? The plant has been punished enough. During those same years one of my Dad's cousins blew away a competitor during the Prohibition territory wars and he was forgiven by a sympathetic judge in Chicago (the best that money could buy). The plant that killed the child in Hawaii was alleged to be an indigenous wild poinsettia plant. The modem day plant is a hybrid with properties considered by most authorities to be non-lethal. Now it is true that the plant contains a milky, white sap in the leaves, stems and flowers (AKA bracts) and this sap can be very irritating to the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal tract. In susceptible individuals an acute contact dermatitis can occur from contact with the sap but this event is not common. Ingestion of the leaves or red bracts can cause vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. The leaves are quite bitter and most little people probably would not swallow them in quantity. A few years ago one of my sons, at a fraternity Christmas party, allegedly consumed two poinsettia leaves as an act of bravado to impress his fraternity brothers and assorted lady friends. It is alleged by competent (?) witnesses (some of whom were alleged to be acutely mind-altered at the time) that there were no sequellae following this ingestion. My son did not tell me about this impromptu experiment until a year later. After all, he does not know what I do for a living, do any of your children really know what your work consists of? The funny thing is — like most of our own younguns — he never listened too well to parental requests; if I would have asked him to swallow the leaves as a research project for me he probably would not have done so. In the recent literature there is an article' describing an infant who chewed on a poinsettia leaf and acquired bums of the buccal mucosa. I suspect this phenomenon is not very common, but should be noted. The treatment is symptomatic if the patient gets involved with this plant. Gastric decontamination is probably indicated if the patient has not vomited already. Mistletoe: This bit of flora conjures up warm feelings of closeness that are such a part of the Season; it makes us think of the kisses that you gave or received while standing under this plant or the kisses you wished you had given or received. However, mistletoe is a bad actor, poison-wise. We should have been able to predict its evil behavior — in Norse mythology, the mistletoe was the only living thing that did not swear an oath not to harm the great Balder (remember him?) who was the god of beauty and light. Balder was the son of Odin, the number one Norse god. Loki, a feared enemy of the god. slew Balder with an arrow made of mistletoe. Heaven forfend — I never knew anyone who died as a result of mistletoe but I did know an intern mate of mine who got the stove-top stuffing beat out of him 792 Vol. 45, No. 12
Object Description
Rating | |
Fixed Title * | NCHH-17: North Carolina Medical Journal [1940-2001] |
Document Title | North Carolina Medical Journal [1940-2001] |
Subject Topical Other | Public Health -- Periodicals.; Physicians -- North Carolina -- Directory.; Societies, Medical -- North Carolina -- Periodicals. |
Description | Includes Transactions of the Society, -1960; 1961- , Transactions issued separately, bound in.; Includes Transactions of the auxiliary to the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina and Proceedings of the North Carolina Public Health Association. Official organ of the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina, 1940-May 1972; of the North Carolina Medical Society, June 1972-. Vols. for 1940-May 1972 published by the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina; June 1972- by the North Carolina Medical Society. |
Contributor | Medical Society of the State of North Carolina. Transactions.; Medical Society of the State of North Carolina.; North Carolina Medical Society.; North Carolina Medical Society. Transactions.; North Carolina Public Health Association. Proceedings. |
Publisher | [Winston-Salem] : North Carolina Medical Society [etc.], 1940- |
Repository | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Health Sciences Library. |
Host | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Date | 1984 |
Identifier | NCHH-17-045 |
Form General | Periodicals |
Language | English |
Rights | This item is part of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection. Some materials in the Collection are protected by U.S. copyright law. This item is presented by the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for research and educational purposes. It may not be republished or distributed without permission of the Health Sciences Library. |
Digital Collection | North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection |
Sponsor | The North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection is an open access publishing initiative of the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Financial support for the initiative was provided in part by a multi-year NC ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) digitization grant, awarded by the State Library of North Carolina, and funded through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). |
Volume Number | 45 |
Health Discipline | Medicine |
Digital Format | JPEG 2000 |
Print / Download PDF Version | http://archives.hsl.unc.edu/nchh/nchh-17/nchh-17-045.pdf |
Document Sort | all; nchh-17 |
Volume Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/identi/searchterm/NCHH-17-045 |
Title Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/documa/searchterm/NCHH-17 |
Catalog Record link | http://search.lib.unc.edu/search?R=UNCb1306322 |
Revision History | done |
Description
Fixed Title * | Page 792 (image) |
Document Title | North Carolina Medical Journal [1940-2001] |
Subject Topical Other | Public Health -- Periodicals.; Physicians -- North Carolina -- Directory.; Societies, Medical -- North Carolina -- Periodicals. |
Description | Includes Transactions of the Society, -1960; 1961- , Transactions issued separately, bound in.; Includes Transactions of the auxiliary to the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina and Proceedings of the North Carolina Public Health Association. Official organ of the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina, 1940-May 1972; of the North Carolina Medical Society, June 1972-. Vols. for 1940-May 1972 published by the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina; June 1972- by the North Carolina Medical Society. |
Contributor | Medical Society of the State of North Carolina. Transactions.; Medical Society of the State of North Carolina.; North Carolina Medical Society.; North Carolina Medical Society. Transactions.; North Carolina Public Health Association. Proceedings. |
Publisher | [Winston-Salem] : North Carolina Medical Society [etc.], 1940- |
Repository | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Health Sciences Library. |
Host | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Date | 1984 |
Identifier | NCHH-17-045-0434 |
Form General | Periodicals |
Page Type | all; all images; illustration; article |
Language | English |
Rights | This item is part of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection. Some materials in the Collection are protected by U.S. copyright law. This item is presented by the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for research and educational purposes. It may not be republished or distributed without permission of the Health Sciences Library. |
Filename | ncmed45v21984medi_0434.jp2 |
Digital Collection | North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection |
Sponsor | The North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection is an open access publishing initiative of the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Financial support for the initiative was provided in part by a multi-year NC ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) digitization grant, awarded by the State Library of North Carolina, and funded through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). |
Volume Number | 45 |
Issue Number | 12 |
Page Number | 792 |
Health Discipline | Medicine |
Full Text | to the holidays. Therefore. 1 am submitting these words to those health care practitioners out there in the real world who may be confronted with people, big and small, who ingest berries, leaves, flowers, stems of holiday plants. Poinsettia: The poinsettia was introduced in the United States in 1828 by Joel R. Poinsett, then U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. This plant, one of the most typical symbols of the Yuletide, suffers from bad public relations. Every Christmas the debate resumes about this beautiful plant's toxicity; the complete answer is still not in. However, a reasonable judgment concerning its potential dangers can be made on the basis of its history. Yes. I know that the literature says that in 1919 a child in Hawaii died after eating poinsettia leaves. So what, must the plant be maligned forever? The plant has been punished enough. During those same years one of my Dad's cousins blew away a competitor during the Prohibition territory wars and he was forgiven by a sympathetic judge in Chicago (the best that money could buy). The plant that killed the child in Hawaii was alleged to be an indigenous wild poinsettia plant. The modem day plant is a hybrid with properties considered by most authorities to be non-lethal. Now it is true that the plant contains a milky, white sap in the leaves, stems and flowers (AKA bracts) and this sap can be very irritating to the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal tract. In susceptible individuals an acute contact dermatitis can occur from contact with the sap but this event is not common. Ingestion of the leaves or red bracts can cause vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. The leaves are quite bitter and most little people probably would not swallow them in quantity. A few years ago one of my sons, at a fraternity Christmas party, allegedly consumed two poinsettia leaves as an act of bravado to impress his fraternity brothers and assorted lady friends. It is alleged by competent (?) witnesses (some of whom were alleged to be acutely mind-altered at the time) that there were no sequellae following this ingestion. My son did not tell me about this impromptu experiment until a year later. After all, he does not know what I do for a living, do any of your children really know what your work consists of? The funny thing is — like most of our own younguns — he never listened too well to parental requests; if I would have asked him to swallow the leaves as a research project for me he probably would not have done so. In the recent literature there is an article' describing an infant who chewed on a poinsettia leaf and acquired bums of the buccal mucosa. I suspect this phenomenon is not very common, but should be noted. The treatment is symptomatic if the patient gets involved with this plant. Gastric decontamination is probably indicated if the patient has not vomited already. Mistletoe: This bit of flora conjures up warm feelings of closeness that are such a part of the Season; it makes us think of the kisses that you gave or received while standing under this plant or the kisses you wished you had given or received. However, mistletoe is a bad actor, poison-wise. We should have been able to predict its evil behavior — in Norse mythology, the mistletoe was the only living thing that did not swear an oath not to harm the great Balder (remember him?) who was the god of beauty and light. Balder was the son of Odin, the number one Norse god. Loki, a feared enemy of the god. slew Balder with an arrow made of mistletoe. Heaven forfend — I never knew anyone who died as a result of mistletoe but I did know an intern mate of mine who got the stove-top stuffing beat out of him 792 Vol. 45, No. 12 |
Digital Format | JPEG 2000 |
Print / Download PDF Version | http://archives.hsl.unc.edu/nchh/nchh-17/nchh-17-045.pdf |
Document Sort | all; nchh-17 |
Article Title | Tis The Season To Do Folly: Horrendous Holiday Horticultural Happenings |
Article Author | Ronald B. Mack |
Volume Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/identi/searchterm/NCHH-17-045 |
Title Link | http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/search/collection/nchh/field/documa/searchterm/NCHH-17 |
Catalog Record link | http://search.lib.unc.edu/search?R=UNCb1306322 |
Revision History | done |
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