Botanic Remedies 263 



quantity of the pollen vaccine into a scratch of the 

 skin; if the patient is sensitive to that particular 

 pollen, an urticarial wheal results. First test out 

 the susceptibility, and wait until the wheal has 

 completely subsided; then use the appropriate vac- 

 cine according to the printed directions accom- 

 panying the package. The proper doses are given 

 subcutaneously. Pollen vaccine is used both for 

 prophylactic and curative treatment. 



The use of a pollen vaccine develops a certain 

 degree of immunity, just as the use of ricin in 

 minute doses develops the antitoxic antiricin; but 

 no protein, vegetable or animal, is of itself an anti- 

 toxin. The claim that echinacea or lobelia, q. v., 

 even if injected hypodermatically, has an anti- 

 toxic value in disease is preposterous; but it is a 

 theoretical possibility that vegetable proteins, when 

 injected, develop an immunizing body against their 

 own action. If we were to find a vegetable protein 

 that developed a train of pathologic symptoms 

 paralleling those of some clinically defined disease, 

 then it might be theoretically possible, by injecting 

 a dilution of that protein, to establish a degree of 

 immunity to the parallel disease. Nevertheless, 

 this is pure theory. But it might be, for instance, 

 that spasmodic asthma could be influenced by cer- 

 tain pollen proteins. 



There are plenty of vegetable proteins upon which 

 to experiment if one cares for such research. The 

 toxic ones abrin, crotin, and ricin should be han- 

 dled infinitely diluted; but there are many of less 

 toxicity. 



Globulin may be readily separated from wheat 

 or cotton-seed, amandin from almonds, corylin from 



