POISON FOR SOME

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 220, 13 June 1936, Page 24

POISON FOR SOME

Antipathies to Flower Scents

To millions of people chrysanthemum blooms bring a sense of beauty and a delicate refreshing smell. To one in a million it seems that they can bring a most unpleasant condition of lhe skiu by their touch., Mrs. Lydia Hawkins, of Brighton, England, was admitted, to, .the county hospital recently with a dangerous peeling of the skin for which there was no account-, ing except that she had buried her face in a bunch of the flowers. Confirmation that this was the cause was obtained by placing a petal on her arm. It left its pattern there. Many plants besides nettles have leaves which produce unpleasant effects on the skin, but who would have thought to find danger in chrysanthemums?

The nearest resemblance to such a danger is in the pollens producing hay fever, but many are afflicted by these. Mrs. Hawkins is one in a million, not one of the million. Commenting on this case a famous London doctor told of patients who are made ill by eating strawberries, oranges,, eggs, milk or honey, and of one case in which violent asthma follows the eating of a banana.

Much attention has been given to this subject of late, and to the list of influences from which asthma springs have been added the pollen of grass, which produce: hay fever; feathers, whether on a bird or iu a

bed; and the smell of horses, cows, sheep, pigs, rabbits, goats and other animals.

Each person affected by these influences has .only one thing to fear: the rest do not affect him. Another London doctor tells of the astonishing effect on his wife of a spider near her. Even in the dark she is conscious of its presence, ami is ill, recovering immediately the spider is removed. An English paper tells of a woman who fainted at the sight of fish brought to her at the breakfast table.

Lord Wolseley had a horror of frogs and toads. Lord Roberts, a great and fearless hunter of the Indian tiger, was terrified of domestic eats. ■ • The mere presence of one in a house, although he might not see it, would make him thoroughly ill. The fact was often commented on and jokes were made about it in his lifetime, but the reality exceeded all the stories made up. His friend. Sir Reginald Hart. V.C., once told a friend that Lord Robert’s medical man, on two occasions at Kabul, found him sobbing and weeping, and each time it was discovered that there was a eat in the vicinity. Who would believe it if the facts were not known: Lord Wolseley running home with fear because a frog Ind shown its head in n swimming pool, and Lord Roberts in tears because eats were affecting his delicate senses!