The dermatitis produced by East Indian satinwood ('chloroxylon swietenia') / by J. Theodore Cash.

  • Cash, John Theodore, 1854-1936.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The dermatitis produced by East Indian satinwood ('chloroxylon swietenia') / by J. Theodore Cash. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    TILE DERMATITIS PRODUCED BY EAST INDIAN SATINWOOD (“ CHLOROXYLON SWIETENIA.”) Two kinds of satinwood appear in commerce in tlie United Kingdom, derived respectively from Chloroxylon Siuietenia and Fagar a flava—the former an East Indian and the latter a West Indian species. Both varieties of satinwood are highly ornamental when smoothed and polished, and are extensively used for the fittings of cabins and saloons in ships. In 1898 and again in 1904 there were outbreaks of dermatitis in wood-working departments of shipyards on the Clyde which were traced to the irritant action of satinwood, and on the latter occasion a number of papers on this subject were published by medical men.1 The attention of the Imperial Institute was directed to this matter by Mr. J. Wliitton, Superintendent of Pai’ks and Curator of Botanic Gardens to the Glasgow Corpora- tion, and as both kinds of satinwood are produced in British colonies their examination for irritant substances likely to be the cause of dermatitis was undertaken at the Imperial Institute. At this time considerable doubt existed as to whether both East and West Indian satinwoods possessed irritant properties and were equally active, but my examination of the substances isolated from both woods submitted to me from the Imperial Institute indicates that the East Indian wood is the more active and is probably the usual cause of the satinwood dermatitis. This conclusion is in harmony with that stated in the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories for 1907, and arrived at as the result of an inquiry by inspectors of factories in workshops using both kinds of satinwood in the United Kingdom. Chemical Examination. The chemical examination of both varieties of satin- wood was undertaken at the suggestion of Professor Dunstan, F.R.S., Director of the Imperial Institute, bv [486/11]