THE PEPPER TREE AND HAY FEVER. 529 



Public Health Department, Mr. O. F. Gibbs, to make a bacterio- 

 logical examination of the dried pollen which had produced the 

 attack. Mr. Gibbs' report is as follows: — 



Government Laboratories, 



Department of Public Health, 



Bloemfontedn, 



25th June, 1918. 



With regard to the " Pollen " which you asked me to investi- 

 gate, from a bacteriological point of view, the following results 

 have so far been obtained : 



Some of the samples was sown in " Peptone beef broth," 

 and after 48 hours' incubation at 37 °C quite a dense growth was 

 obtained. The culture was then " plated-out " on ordinary agar 

 and after 24 hours' incubation two varieties of colonies had 

 appeared, viz: 



No. I a greyish coloured colony about 3^ m.m. in diameter. 



No. 2, a whitish coloured colony about 13^ m.m. in diameter. 



Microscopic examination showed in each case a distinct 

 diplococcus, resembling two beans placed side by side with the 

 concave margins adjacent. No. i is a rather small diplococcus, 

 whilst No. 2 is somewhat laiger. Both stain readily with Carbo- 

 Thionin Blue and are " Gram-positive." 



Before these can be classified in any particular group, other 

 tests will have to be carried out ; animal and fermentation tests. 



Whether these organisms have an affinity for pollen and 

 whether they are the infecting agent in " Hay Fever " remains to 

 be proved. 



i^ome time ago I had occasion to prepare autogenous vaccines 

 for two cases (Nos. 34 and 3s) suffering from an acute attack 

 of " Hay Fever." The material was obtained from the " nasal 

 discharge," and in each case the predominating organism was a 

 " gram-positive " diplococcus having the same microscopic 

 characters as Nos. i and 2. 



One cannot place too much reliance on two cases, and I 

 would like to suggest that a series of experiments be carried out 

 on different pollen from dift'erent sources, preferably in the 

 summer, when we could have a much greater choice. 



I am^ yours very sincerely, 



(Sd.) O. F. Gibbs. 

 Government Bacteriological Assistant, 

 late of the Lister Institute of Pre- 

 ventive Medicine, London. 



Mr. Gibbs' results are of great interest, and open up a new 

 field ifor investigation. The dried pollen was found to carry 

 two species of diplococcus bacteria ; and bacteria with similar 

 microscopic characters had already been found by Mr. Gibbs the 

 previous summer (January and April, 1917) in the nasal dis- 

 charge of two Bloemfontein patients suft"ering from an acute 

 attack of hay fever. 



Here may lie the clue to the solution of the problem of the 



