Chemical Preparations and Drugs. 69 



the ballast-albuminoids, recognised to be ineffective, from the poisonous component 

 proper. That this separation has been successful beyond expectation is shown by 

 what I have said above concerning the increased specific poisonous activity and 

 intensified counter-reactions by the living organism thus treated. The question whether 

 the poisonous effect is to be ascribed to some protein, in this case the pollen albumin, 

 or whether it is only adherent to it, remains for the present entirely open. 



The contradiction which Heyl and Hopkins have construed into my statements 

 must therefore fall. 



The second objection raised by Heyl and Hopkins does not fare any better. They 

 maintain that according to my statements the hay-fever poison would lose its efficiency 

 by being precipitated and by standing for some time in alcohol, but would not be 

 impaired by heating, because it was thermostable. The authors must have been misled 

 by the idea that a coagulation of albuminoids by alcohol and by heat is the same 

 thing, and that the two processes should be accompanied by the same effect. Let us 

 examine my statements. 



In my paper on "Further Studies concerning Pollen-Toxin" I state that the albumins 

 are precipitated from their aqueous solution by eight to ten-fold the bulk of alcohol, 

 and that it is advisable to shorten this treatment with alcohol, although any considerable 

 detriment to the pollen-toxin would not result. How do Heyl and Hopkins come to 

 assert that treatment with alcohol should result in a loss of efficiency? 



If I have said in my paper on the "Study of Rye Pollen, §c." that the hay-fever 

 poison is thermostable, that, it will easily be understood, is to be taken conditionally. 

 The published data of my heat experiments demonstrate that temperatures of 70° C. 

 and more already diminish the toxicity to about one-quarter of its original value. 



Coagulation by alcohol and coagulation by heat are, moreover, so different matters 

 that we must not conclude equal final effects from the equal external appearance of the 

 coagulates. Once more the authors cannot be spared the reproach of not having 

 proceeded with the necessary knowledge of the facts. 



The statements by Heyl and Hopkins have not only not been able to convince 

 me of the utility of the galenical principle, which they praise, in cases of the complex 

 problems of the various hay-fever poisons including the ragweed poison, but they can 

 only confirm the belief in more penetrating and thorough methods of research. 



Storax. — The literature distinguishes, in addition to Oriental storax balsams, two 

 storax species of American origin: — American storax and Honduras balsam, also known 

 as white Peru balsam 1 ). The mother plant of the American storax is the tree Liquidambar 

 styracifluum, L., which grows in the South East of the United States and in Central 

 America. According to A. Tschirch 2 ) the Honduras balsam is also obtained from a 

 species of Liquidambar. In each of the two oils, which are obtained by steam distillation 

 from these balsams, the chemical investigation has revealed cinnamyl alcohol and phenyl- 

 propyl alcohol and esters of the cinnamic acid and these alcohols. In the oil from the 

 so-called American storax there has also been found styrene and a small quantity of 

 an aldehyde which smells of vanillin. 



The presumption appears justified that the two kinds, which are described under 

 different names, really represent the same commercial product which originates from 

 Honduras. As we mentioned in our last Report but one 3 ), the mountains of this country 



: ) Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, 2 nd ed., vol. II, p. 542, 543. — 2 ) Die Harze unci die 

 JInrzUhalter, 2^ ed., vol. I, p. 322. Leipzig 1906. — 3 ) Report 1919, 72. 



