keep myself quite free.
[Footnote: There is no foundation for the objection that syringing the
nose could not cure the asthma which accompanies hay fever; for this
asthma is only the reflex effect arising from the irritation of the
nose.--B.] There were then no such vibrios in the secretion. If I
only go out in the evening, it suffices to inject the quinine once a
day, just before going. After continuing this treatment for some days
the symptoms disappear completely, but if I leave off they return till
towards the end of June.

'My first experiments with quinine date from the summer of 1867; this
year (1868) I began at once as soon as the first traces of the illness
appeared, and I have thus been able to stop its development
completely.

'I have hesitated as yet in publishing the matter, because I have
found no other patient [Footnote: Helmholtz, now Professor of
Physics at the University of Berlin, is, although M.D., no medical
practitioner.--B.] on whom I could try the experiment. There is, it
seems to me, no doubt, considering the extraordinary regularity in the
recurrence and course of the illness, that quinine had here a most
quick and decided effect. And this again makes my hypothesis very
probable, that the vibrios, although of no specific form but a very
frequent one, are at least the cause of the rapid increase of the
symptoms in warm air, as heat excites them to lively action.

I should be very glad if the above lines would induce medical men in
England--the haunt of hay fever--to test the observation of Helmholtz.
To most patients the application with the pipette may be too difficult
or impossible; I have therefore already suggested the use of Weber's
very simple but effective nose-douche. Also it will be advisable to
apply the solution of quinine _tepid_. It can, further, not be repeated
often enough that quinine is frequently adulterated, especially with
cinchona, the action of which is much less to be depended upon.

Dr. Frickhoefer, of Schwalbach, has communicated to me a second case
in which hay fever was cured by local application of quinine.
[Footnote: Cf. Virchow's 'Archiv.' (1870), vol. li. p. 176.]
Professor Busch, of Bonn, authorises me to say that he succeeded in
two cases of 'catarrhus aestivus' by the same method: a third patient
was obliged to abstain from the use of quinine, as it produced an
unbearable irritation of the sensible nerves of the nose. In the
autumn of 1872 Helmhol