lieciew of Beciews, 1111/13. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



903 



serious condition of the people and the 

 need of remedial laws. As a result of 

 his pleadings, an act of " Home Rule " 

 for Alaska was passed, and an appro- 

 priation was asked for to meet the needs 

 of the situation. 



Speaking in the House of Representa- 

 tives upon the bill to provide for a 

 legislative assembly for the Territory of 

 .Alaska, the Hon William W. Wede 



meyer, Member of Congress from 



Michigan, said: — 



No man understands Alaska and its prob- 

 lems better than Bishop Rowe^ who for six- 

 teen years or more has ministered to the 

 people of that remote territory. There i.s 

 not time here to speak of his good work. 

 It is only the truth to say, however, 

 that the progress that has been made in 

 Alaska would have been utterly impossible 

 without the unselfish efiForts of missionaries, 

 who have toiled unremittingly and 

 under tlie hardest possible eonditions. 



HAY FEVER A FORM OF ANAPHYLAXIA. 



The distressing symptoms of inflam- 

 mation and redness of the nose, attended 

 by an annoying discharge, and often 

 accompanied by inflammation of the 

 conjunctiva, and even by fever and diffi- 

 culty in breathing, which attack many 

 persons in summer or early fall, and 

 which are borne more or less resignedl)' 

 as an attack of " hay fever," really in- 

 dicate a serious susceptibility to a speci- 

 fic poison. This poison is contained in 

 the grains of pollen from the various 

 members of the grass family. 



Such pollen-particles are borne far 

 and wide on the breeze during the blos- 

 soming season, and light upon the moist 

 mucous membrane of eyes and nose. 

 The violent irritation which they cause 

 here is due to their content of minute 

 quantities of an albuminous substance 

 which acts as a poison to some indivi- 

 duals, though most persons readily re- 

 sist it. 



This special susceptibility to certain 

 albumens has recently been recognised 

 as a very serious matter, and scientists 

 have given it a distinctive title — anaphy- 

 laxia. It is because of this idiosyncrasy 

 that some pei'sons are poisoned by cer- 

 tain foods, such as strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, currants, pineapples, or by 

 oysters, crabs, Limburger cheese, etc. 



Such cases, wdth special reference to 

 hay fever, are discussed by Dr. L. Rein- 

 hardt in Kosnios (Stuttgart). 



The very best remedy for avoidance 

 of hay fever, as many sufferers recog- 

 nise, is to fly before the grasses begin to 

 bloom to some spot where such blossoni- 

 ing is unknown or scarce, such as I^eli 

 goland, the Upper Engadine, or local 

 ities in the United States which our 

 readers will recall to mind. 



Such desertion of homes, families, and 

 business, however, is generally imprac- 

 ticable. Yet it is of grave importance 

 to avoid an attack, not merely because 

 of the attendant suffering and incon- 

 venience, but because these poisons have 

 ihe singular property of causing attacks 

 which constantly increase in violence, 

 instead of tending gradually to create 

 a state of immunity, as is done by those 

 of a different type. 



Dr. Reinhardt consequently advises a 

 medical immunisation before the flower- 

 ing time of the grasses commences. 



He writes : 



At present this is best secured by spraying 

 with the solution of timothy-grass iPhleiim 

 ])ratensc), first prepared by the two English 

 physicians Noon and Freeman. A much 

 simpler method, however, is merely to inhale 

 qiuminol or some similar polyvalent hay 

 fever " drv serum." This method is not so 

 certain as the former, hut has the advantage 

 that it can be applied without a i)hysician's 

 aid. 



Besides this active immunization, it is ad- 

 visable for the patient to spend as much of 

 his time as possible during the pollen-bear- 

 ing season within a closed room. 



For those whose business forces them 

 to go abroad, however, he recommends 

 the use of a nasal filter of cotton bat- 

 ting to arrest the pollen grains, or the 

 "reasing of the nostrils with some anti- 

 septic salve, as one containing boric acid 

 (Bormelin). The eyes can be protected 

 b)' close-fitting automobile goggles. 



if ill .spite of these precautions the nasal 

 mucous membrane shows irritation, it is 

 better to c-mploy, instead of '' hornirlin," a 

 borio salve containing adrenalin and co- ^ 

 caine, for which use, however, a physician's 

 prescription is necessary. 



Mr. Otto Scliultz, of Hanover, the 

 |jresident of the tieligoland Hay Fever 



