98 Report of Schimmel § Co. April /October 1917. 



membranes. This state might be the consequence of a damaged vasomotoric apparatus, 

 due to a violent influenza or other illnesses. 



The prophylactic treatment of hay-fever may consist in spending the critical time 

 in districts, where the air does not contain any pollen. In Germany, previous to the 

 war, Heligoland was specially preferred by hay-fever patients as a place comparatively 

 free from pollen. A further possibility of protecting the mucous membranes against 

 pollen is to use goggles for the eyes and cotton wool filters for the nose, which keep 

 away or filter the air laden with pollen and are said to have given good results. In 

 addition, the continued use of calcium chloride is said to reduce the permeability of 

 the vessels. Recently, Loew prepared a double salt under the name of "Kalzan" 

 (calcii et sodii lactas), which is supposed to be free from the drawbacks of calcium 

 chloride, and the continued administration of which, even in large doses, is stated to 

 cause no unfavourable by-effects. Dunbar did not gain the conviction that the resorption 

 of the pollen albumen was prevented by calcium chloride. Hoffmann could not book 

 either any incontestable success. Emmerich and Loew, however, report that taking 

 3 grams of calcium chloride crystals daily for several weeks before and during the 

 hay-fever season might remove the most essential symptoms and that the use of the 

 substance, if continued for years, might .even free from the complaint altogether. 

 Similar favourable reports are given by Kayser and Seiffert, the latter of whom, however, 

 refrains from making a conclusive statement. Further observations must show whether 

 the hopes set on the calcium treatment will be realized. 



It is interesting to hear from Galisch, who had been suffering severely from hay- 

 fever for 30 years, that he was free from any attacks in the two war summers 1915/1916, 

 spent in the West as well as in the East. He thinks, his being cured may have 

 something to do with having been hardened through exposure in the war. Such a 

 possibility seems to be an exception, however, for Gaehtgens has had an opportunity 

 of gathering from letters of soldiers at the front that even there they were not spared 

 by their complaint. 



According to the experiences of Dunbar, Ltibbert, Prausnitz, Zarniko, and others, a 

 considerable curing effect is decidedly due to Pollantin, as more than half of the 

 hay-fever patients succeed in keeping themselves almost entirely free from any attacks 

 by properly using the remedy. Although it is easily handled, it is often applied in the 

 wrong way, a fact which accounts, beyond any doubt, for a good many failures, for 

 which Pollantin is blamed. One of the chief rules, against which many patients sin, 

 is that only small quantities of the preparation ought to be conveyed to the mucous 

 membranes of ,the eyes, the nose and, if necessary, the mouth, before any strong 

 irritation has been noticed. It is wrong to take large doses, as they mechanically irritate 

 the mucous membranes and may cause supersensitiveness. It is wrong too to use 

 the remedy after the symptoms have fully developed, as then the mucous membranes 

 are only irritated further and a resorption through the dropsically swollen mucous 

 membranes does not take place any more.. A further cause of Pollantin refusing to 

 act occasionally may be a simultaneous supersensitiveness towards horse serum, 

 which is acquired by some patients in the course of the treatment. The introduction 

 of one drop of immunized or ordinary horse serum, during or out of the hay-fever 

 season, brings about in such persons symptoms of irritation similar to those of hay- 

 fever. But there is help for such persons in two ways. Either they may be recommended 

 to use the diluted Pollantin "R" in very small quantities and, if possible, only once 

 daily, or, in some cases, when the patients had become anaphylactic towards horse 

 serum, the application of an immunized serum of another kind of animals, e. g. rabbits, 



