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instance, a solution of pollen-albumen from gramineae was precipitated 

 by the blood-serum of hay-fever patients; that is to say a flocculent 

 sediment was formed in a specific manner, but this was not the case with 

 the blood-serum of normally non-sensitive subjects. A so-called comple- 

 mentary deflexion method applied with the first-named serum confirmed 

 the conclusion which had been drawn from the first experiment that art 

 antitoxin is formed in the organism of the hay-fever patient. Further, the 

 serum of the patients had acquired the property of dissolving or con- 

 glomerating the blood-corpuscles of other animals (sheep, rabbits, guinea- 

 pigs), a property which is non-existent in the serum of normal subjects. 

 It should be added however that the solvent property above referred to 

 exists only during, or shortly after, the hay-fever period. This so-called 

 hemolytic action of the serum during the period of the disease was 

 removed (as was shown by further experiments), by the addition of pollen- 

 toxin. It follows from this that there must be a certain relationship between 

 the pollen-toxin and the organism, and according to Dunbar this relationship 

 is a follows: Owing to certain unexplained pathological processes, the 

 pollen-albumen, i. e. the principle which causes hay-fever, acquires in 

 predisposed subjects the power of penetrating not only through the mucous 

 membrane but also through the outer skin or cuticle, for when pollen- 

 solutions are brought into contact with the latter a reaction takes place. 

 Dunbar believes that the cause of this abnormal penetrability of the 

 membranes lies in an injury of the vaso-motoric apparatus such as is 

 known to be left after acute influenza and after other affections. Similarly 

 the skin of a certain proportion of hay-fever patients is penetrable by 

 horse-serum albumen, and this causes the hyper-sensitiveness referred 

 to above. The curative action of pollen-antitoxin (pollantin) is efficacious 

 against the sensitiveness due to the absorption of pollen-albumen, but 

 the sensitiveness caused by the absorption of serum-albumen must be 

 counteracted by other methods, because a horse-immune serum must of 

 course provoke the same symptoms. Normal subjects who have used a 

 preparation consisting of horse-serum for some considerable time as a 

 remedy for cold have in no single instance been found to show anaphylactic 

 symptoms. 



Contrary to the views expressed by other authors it follows from the 

 above that the pollantin-therapy must be regarded as resting upon a sound 

 foundation from the theoretical standpoint also. Pollantin differs from 

 remedies such as cocaine, adrenalin, 8jc., which have a more symptomatic 

 action and attack the several manifestations of a disease, but which also 

 are not effective in every case and are, moreover, not neutral. The 

 pollantin-treatment is truly causal, being directed immediately against the 

 cause of the disease: the toxic pollen-albumen v/hich sets up the hay-fever 

 symptoms. Statistics show that practice and theory agree in this case, 

 for out of every ten patients an average of six are cured completely, while 



