— 140 — 



On the basis of numerous cinnameme determinations made with 

 samples of the best brands on the market, we are further in a posi- 

 tion to state that the cinnameine content even in the case of good 

 balsams is occasionally as low as 55%. The ester number of cin- 

 nameine, which according to the German Pharmacopoeia Ed. IV must 

 be at least 236, varied from 232 to 242. 



We cannot refrain from stating the fact that the best brands of 

 balsam which are available in commerce, very often fail to come up 

 to Pharmacopoeia standard in one respect or another, while on the 

 other hand balsams which answer the Pharmacopoeia tests may be 

 had without difficulty at low prices. Such an illogical state of things 

 affords cause for reflection, and must involuntarily induce doubts as 

 to the purity of the last-named balsams. 



Pollantin. While the etiological connection" between [hay-fever 

 and the pollen of certain plants, which has been revealed by the work 

 of Dunbar and his collaborators, has been generally admitted even by 

 the opponents of Dunbar's views on serum therapy, P. Bonnier 1 ) in 

 an article entitled "Le rhume des foins" denies the existence of such 

 a connection, or at any rate maintains that the pollen is the cause of the 

 affection in only very few instances. According to him, in the vast 

 majority of cases the exciting agents are altogether different, consisting 

 in fact, of certain powders, such as flowers of sulphur or rice powder, 

 or of definite and in some cases external nervous irritants, including 

 wind, the reflection of the sun, light etc., which have frequently no 

 connection whatsover with flowering grass or with the hay crop. The 

 symptoms caused by these agents are the same as those provoked by 

 susceptibility to irritation from pollen. Bonnier traces them to distur- 

 bances in the equilibrium of the nerve-centres which regulate the 

 secretive action and, in special cases, also of those which influence 

 the action of the bowels, the separation of urine etc. In treating such 

 cases, Bonnier thinks the application of specific serums has been of 

 less effect than, maybe, the "neutralisation" of the centres in question by 

 the gentlest and most superficial possible cauterisation of certain places 

 in the mucous membrane of the nose. 



Bonnier appears to have overlooked the whole of the voluminous 

 literature on the subject which has been published during the last six 

 years, or he would certainly not have overlooked the fact that almost 

 all authors differentiate clearly between general secretory neuroses 

 and hay fever sensu strictiori, that is to say an idiosyncracy founded 

 on the susceptibility of some individuals towards the albumens of certain 

 pollen. Before these had been recognised as being the causes of the 

 periodical affection in question, — an affection which only attacks the 



*) Compt. rend. 148 (1909), 1694. 



