Chemical Preparations and Drugs. 97 



the cytolysis of the pollen albumens like the antiferments. This action is said to 

 appertain in a still higher degree to the normal serum (Graminol), owing to the absence 

 of the cytolysins. 



Finally, even Prausnitz declared of late that the anaphylactic hypothesis was the 

 most satisfactory one, generally speaking. He sees the cause of the disposition for 

 hay-fever in the presence of relatively small quantities of an amboceptor, specific for 

 pollen albumen. Under its influence, the pollen albumen that reached the mucous 

 membranes was changed from the complement into a poisonous intermediate pro- 

 duct, from which finally, if the reduction continued, innoxious substances were formed. 

 The success of the hay-fever serum was due to the fact that it created a sufficient 

 excess of amboceptors, in consequence of which the resolution process was so quick 

 that the poisonous intermediate product did not get any chance to act. 



In opposition to said authors, Dunbar up to now holds that the pollen poison is 

 a true toxin and Pollantin, in consequence, an antitoxin. For not only did Kammann 

 succeed in proving that the Ambrosia poison was neutralized by his (Dunbar's) specific 

 serum according to the law of the multiple proportions, but, in addition, Kammann 

 and Gaehtgens ascertained in further investigations that the saturation of the rye 

 pollen toxin by Pollantin strictly followed the same law. The experiments, even with 

 80 times the ordinary irritative dosis, resulted in that the toxin was bound completely 

 by the corresponding (80 times) effective quantity of serum and thus showed that 

 Pollantin must be looked upon not as a cytolytic, but an antitoxic, serum. According 

 to Dunbar's investigations, further reasons speak against considering hay-fever as an 

 anaphylactic illness. On the one hand, it is possible to produce an antitoxin against 

 hay-fever, whereas it is characteristic for anaphylaxy that in no case any counterpoison 

 for the anaphylatoxin has been noticed; on the other hand, Dunbar never succeeded 

 in passively transferring anaphylaxy on guinea-pigs with the serum of hay-fever 

 patients. Similar experiments with the serum of guinea-pigs, which had before been 

 treated repeatedly with pollen albumen, yielded no definite results and can in no case 

 be exploited in favour of the theory of anaphylaxy. Furthermore, there are no obser- 

 vations, so far, that the attacks of hay-fever were followed by a reduction of the 

 sensitiveness towards pollen in the sense of anaphylaxy. In the contrary, the sus- 

 ceptibility of the patient rather seems to increase after each attack; at least, the 

 sensitiveness remains unaltered for years and years. The view, that the occurrence 

 of hay-fever was to be explained by that the sensitiveness was brought about through 

 the contact with considerable quantities of pollen, cannot be maintained in every case, 

 as Dunbar was frequently able to observe that persons who lived in Germany and 

 had never been to America, therefore never had come into touch with the pollen of 

 Ambrosiacece or Solidaginacece, got hay-fever nevertheless on the first contact with such 

 pollen albumen. Above all, Dunbar succeeded in stating that a normal person, in 

 spite of subcutaneous injections of rye pollen albumen in increasing doses continued 

 for several weeks, did not become supersensitive and did not show the slightest 

 symptoms of hay-fever at the critical period. 



For all these reasons, Dunbar declines to designate hay-fever as a purely anaphylactic 

 process. He thinks a complete explanation of the individual disposition for hay-fever is 

 not possible so far, but as the established proof of the presence of antipollen albumens 

 in the serum of the hay-fever patients points to the parenteral absorption of pollen 

 substances by the human body, one would be entitled, at present, to look upon the 

 symptoms of hay-fever as a defensive reaction against the parenteral introduction of 

 genuine noxious pollen albumen through the abnormally permeable cutis and mucous 



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