814 

renders certain persons susceptible to pollen, nothing 
is known with certainty. It has been suggested that the 
affected persons may possess a specific proteolytic fer- 
ment which, acting on pollen protein, liberates a poison 
which is the active agent. The predisposition has been 
regarded as allied to anaphylaxis—the state of hyper- 
sensitivity, which can be induced especially in guinea- 
pigs by a sub-lethal dose of a protein of some kind. 
Hay-fever predisposition, however, differs funda- 
mentally from true anaphylaxis. The anaphylactic 
state can be transmitted passively to a normal animal 
by means of the serum of an animal rendered actively 
anaphylactic. This is not so with hay fever. Dunbar 
injected the blood serum of hay-fever persons into 
guinea-pigs, and twenty-four hours later injected the 
animals intravenously with rye-pollen protein. No 
positive results were obtained. Further, normal 
persons never develop hay fever after the subcutaneous 
injection of pollen protein. Dunbar injected a normal 
person with quantities of pollen protein far in excess 
of what he could have received normally, but this 
individual was able to, take long walks through 
meadows in full flower, with impunity. A normal 
person has not the capacity of reacting to pollen 
protein, nor can he be made to develop this power 
experimentally. It may be said, therefore, that what- 
ever is the nature of pollen idiosyncrasy, it is not 
to be ranged alongside the true anaphylactic state. 
It is allied to those idiosyncrasies which occur in certain 
persons who develop asthma or catarrhal symptoms 
from exposure to the secretions or excretions of horses, 
dogs, cats, goats, rabbits, guinea-pigs, or to such 
substances as silk, or food-stuffs like white of egg, or 
certain drugs. 
From the great mass of persons who have the pollen 
idiosyncrasy, and the ‘“‘ annual torment,” as Blackley 
called it, which they undergo, it is not surprising that 
many different treatments have been recommended. 
NATURE 

[June 16, 1923 
If the hay-fever patient could keep away from pollen, 
naturally he would not suffer from the disease, 
Thousands of persons find relief annually at the seaside 
or on islands or barren districts. The German Hay 
Fever Association used to recommend Heligoland. In 
the United States, Fire Island on the Atlantic side of 
Long Island has long enjoyed a reputation as a suitable 
refuge for hay-fever sufferers. Blackley in England 
spoke highly of Lundy Island and some of the islands 
in the Hebrides. For the great majority of patients 
such luxuries are manifestly impossible. 
From the vast number of methods of treatment 
praised at one time or another, only two are 
worthy of consideration. Dunbar recommended the 
serum called Pollantin, prepared by inoculating horses 
with repeated doses of pollen protein. This is used 
either in the liquid or dry state for local application 
to the nose before the onset of symptoms. The main 
objection to this treatment, which may be most 
successful in certain cases, is the temporary character 
of the relief afforded. The other method, erroneously 
called desensitisation, is the active immunisation of 
the patient himself by pollen protein introduced by 
Noon and Freeman. For its success accurate diagnosis 
of the specific pollen idiosyncrasy is necessary in the 
first place, the production of strong protein solutions 
in the second place, and pre-seasonal inoculation in 
the third place. As the immunity is not durable the 
treatment must be annual. By this method Freeman 
(1914) recorded 30 per cent. of complete successes and 
no improvement in 11 per cent. Between 1916 and 
1920 Cooke and Vander Veer injected 1774 patients 
with complete success in 25 per cent. and no success 
in to per cent. The recent results of Bernton (1923) 
are of the same order. It is probable that the 
state of insusceptibility lasts only for a few weeks, 
when the patient again manifests his idiosyncrasy 
unaltered. WB 
The Tercentenary of Blaise Pascal. 
By Prof. H. Witpon Carr. 
N° one can read the story of Pascal’s life without 
amazement at the greatness of his genius and 
sadness at the mode,in which it found expression. To 
Voltaire in the eighteenth century he is a “‘ fou sublime, 
né un siécle trop tdét.” To Chateaubriand in the 
early nineteenth century he is “ cet effrayant génie, 
qui, 4 cet Age ot les autres hommes commencent a 
peine de naitre, ayant achevé de parcourir le cercle des 
sciences humaines, s’apergut de leur néant et tourna 
ses pensées vers la religion.”” He lived at the begin- 
ning of the brilliant leadership of France in the intel- 
lectual development of Europe. In his short life he 
did notable work in mathematics and physics, and 
above all (to continue the quotation from Chateau- 
briand), “toujours infirme et souffrant, fixa la langue 
que parlérent Bossuet et Racine, donna le modéle de 
la plus parfaite plaisanterie, comme du raisonnement 
le plus fort.” 
To appreciate the greatness of Pascal and to discern 
the leading motive in his wonderful activity, it is 
necessary to enter sympathetically into the spirit of 
the age in which he lived, and particularly to under- 
NO. 2798, VOL. 111] 

stand the nature of the religious influence which 
peculiarly affected him from infancy to maturity. 
The outward circumstances of his life may be re- 
corded quite briefly. He was born at Clermont in the 
Auvergne on June 19, 1623. His father, Etienne 
Pascal, was King’s Councillor and Magistrate, president 
of the Cour des Aides. Blaise had two sisters, Gilberte, 
three years older, and Jacqueline, two years younger 
than himself. Their mother died when Blaise was 
three years old. In 1631 the father retired and settled 
with his family in Paris for the sake of their education. 
In 1638 he had managed unfortunately to incur the 
displeasure of Cardinal Richelieu, and, having good 
reason to fear a lettre de cachet, had to go into hiding. 
He returned home, however, risking arrest, when he 
heard that his dearly loved daughter Jacqueline was 
suffering from small-pox, and he remained constantly 
with her until her recovery. The following year there 
was brought about a reconciliation with the Cardinal, 
and shortly after he received the appointment “ In- 
tendant pour les tailles de la généralité”’ at Rouen, to 
which city the family then went to live. In 1648 the 
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