192 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



quinine once a day, just before going. After continuing 

 this treatment for some days the symptoms disappear 

 completely, but if I leave off they return till towards 

 the end of June. 



4 My first experiments with quinine date from the 

 summer of 1867 ; this year (1868) I began at once as 

 soon as the first traces of the illness appeared, and I 

 have thus been able to stop its development com- 

 pletely. 



' I have hesitated as yet in publishing the matter, 

 because I have found no other patient l on whom I 

 could try the experiment. There is, it seems to me, no 

 doubt, considering the extraordinary regularity in the 

 recurrence and course of the illness, that quinine had 

 here a most quick and decided effect. And this again 

 makes my hypothesis very probable, that the vibrios, 

 although of no specific form but a very frequent one, 

 are at least the cause of the rapid increase of the symp- 

 toms in warm air, as heat excites them to lively 

 action.' 



I should be very glad if the above lines would in- 

 duce medical men in England the haunt of hay fever 

 to test the observation of Helmholtz. To most 

 patients the application with the pipette may be too 

 difficult or impossible ; I have therefore already sug- 

 gested the use of Weber's very simple but effective 

 nose-douche. Also it will be advisable to apply the 

 solution of quinine tepid. It can, further, not be re- 

 peated often enough that quinine is frequently adulte- 

 rated, especially with cinchona, the action of which is 

 much less to be depended upon. 



Dr. Frickhofer, of Schwalbach, has communicated 

 to me a second case in which hay fever was cured by 



1 Helmholtz, now Professor of Physics at the University of 

 Berlin, is, although M.D., no medical practitioner. B. 



