Being unable to find recorded in the available literature any report of dermatitis venenata due to the Osage orange, it occurred to me that the publication of such a case would be of interest. Weber,1 in his exhaustive résumé of cutaneous irritants, listed the Osage or wild orange as an agent capable of producing a dermatitis. His reference was obtained through the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture, but further inquiry of the latter elicited the information that no bad effects from handling the leaves or fruit of the Osage orange have ever been observed. Professor Besse2 noted severe inflammatory reaction following mechanical injury by the thorns, but never from the active principle (maclurin) of the fruit.
The aforementioned fruit is indigenous in the midwestern part of this country, where it is grown as a hedge. In the eastern section, the plant is allowed