THE TOXIN CAUSING HAY FEVER 169 



where ; but the Amanitaphalloides, the most important of the three, owes 

 its toxic properties to substances which, according to the investigations 

 of Ford, 1 are true phytotoxins. At least two poisonous constituents are 

 present in A. phalloides. One, the phallln of Kobert, is powerfully 

 hemolytic, is destroyed by heating thirty minutes at 65, and acts directly 

 upon red corpuscles without the presence of serum, thus resembling the 

 bacterial hemolysins. Phallin is also destroyed by the action of pepsin 

 and pancreatin. This agent produces the subcutaneous edema, hemo- 

 globinuria, and pigmentation of the spleen observed in animals into 

 which it has been injected. 



The hemorrhages, necrosis, and fatty degeneration observed in poisoned 

 animals are due to another distinct poison, which Ford calls amanito- 

 toxin. This poison is thermostable, not being destroyed by the tem- 

 perature that destroys the activity of phallin (65), but it does not resist 

 heating to 90 or over. It also differs from phallin in being resistant to 

 pepsin and pancreatin. Animals can be immunized against amanita 

 extracts, and their serum will neutralize the poisons. Both poisons 

 resemble the bacterial toxins in possessing toxophore and haptophore 

 groups, which are quite distinct in each poison, since immunization with 

 the thermostable body gives a serum that has no neutralizing effect upon 

 phallin. 



THE TOXIN CAUSING HAY-FEVER 



In 1902 Dunbar 2 demonstrated conclusively that typical hay-fever, in 

 its several various forms, is due to pollen of various sources, in all, 

 twenty-five varieties of grass and seven varieties of plants of other sorts 

 being found whose pollen, when placed upon the nasal or conjunctiva! 

 mucous membranes of hay-fever patients, cause a typical attack of the 

 disease. In Germany the disease seems to come chiefly from pollen of 

 the grasses and grains (rye pollen being most active), whereas in America 

 the most important pollen seems to come from members of the Ambrosia 

 (rag-weed) and Solidago (goldenrod). Dunbar also found that the 

 toxic constituent could be dissolved from the pollen in salt solution, and 

 seemed to be a proteid: The proteid constituents of the pollen of rye 

 have been studied further by Kammann, 3 who found three proteids, one 

 of which, an albumin, was found to contain all the toxic matter. This 

 constitutes about 5.5 per cent, of the entire weight of the pollen, is 

 weakened but little by heating to 80, and is not destroyed by boiling ; 

 it is but partly destroyed by pepsin and trypsin, and resists acids but not 

 alkalies. So toxic is the material that a solution containing T ^TT milli- 

 gram of pollen proteid, which amount is contained in two or three pollen 

 grains, produces a reaction in susceptible individuals, but large amounts 

 have no effect on normal persons. Dunbar has manufactured an anti- 

 toxic serum * by immunizing horses against the pollen, which seems to 



1 Jour. Infectious Diseases, 1906 (3), 191 ; Jour. Exp. Med., 1906 (8), 437. 



2 Full review of subject and literature given by Glegg, Jour, of Hygiene, 

 1904 (4), 369; concerning etiology see Liefmann, Zeit. f. Hygiene, 1904 (47), 

 153; also Wolff-Eisner, Deut. med. Woch., 1906 (32), 138, and "Das Heu- 

 fieber," Munchen, J. F. Lehmann, 1906. 



Hofmeister's Beitr., 1904 (5), 346. 



4 Wolff-Eisner does not consider the toxic substance a true toxin, but Kam- 

 mann (Berl. klin. Woch., 1906, p. 873) upholds Dunbar's view that it is a true 

 toxin, and that the anti-serum contains a true antitoxin. 



