

ON DUST AND DISEASE. 189 



Helmholtz on Hay Fever. 



In my lecture on Dust and Disease in 1870, I re- 

 ferred to an experiment made by Helmholtz upon him- 

 self which strikingly connected hay fever with animal- 

 cular life. About a year ago I received from Profes- 

 sor Binz of Bonn a short, but important paper, em- 

 bracing Helmholtz's account of his observation, to which 

 Professor Binz has added some remarks of his own. 

 The paper, being mainly intended for English medical 

 men, was published in English, and though here and 

 there its style might be amended, I think it better to 

 publish it unaltered. 



From what I have observed (says Professor Binz) of 

 recent English publications on the subject of hay fever, 

 I am led to suppose that English authorities are in- 

 accurately acquainted with the discovery of Professor 

 Helmholtz, as far back as 1868, of the existence of un- 

 common low organisms in the nasal secretions in this 

 complaint, and of the possibility of arresting their action 

 by the local employment of quinine. I therefore pur- 

 pose to republish the letter in which he originally 

 announced these facts to myself, and to add some 

 further observations on this topic. The letter is as 

 follows : ] 



' I have suffered, as well as I can remember, since 

 the year 1847, from the peculiar catarrh called by the 

 English " hay fever," the speciality of which consists in 

 its attacking its victims regularly in the hay season 

 (myself between May 20 and the end of June), that it 

 ceases in the cooler weather, but on the other hand 

 quickly reaches a great intensity if the patients expose 

 themselves to heat and sunshine. An extraordinary 



1 Cf . Virchow's * Archiv.' vol. xlvi. p. 100. 



