Further experiences with maximum dosage pollen therapy

T HREE years ago I presented before this Society a paper on maximum dosage in pollen therapy.l It might be profitable at this t,ime to report my further experiences with this method of treating 1iaJ fever. Certain refinements in technic have heeu efYected since the preceding report. In the first place, my extracting fluid has been changed from a 50 per cent glycerine and buffered salt solution, to a slight modification of the Hollister-Stier? fluid. innumerable comparative skin tests have shown that a material increase in the sodium chloride content of the former extracting fluid (from 0.5 per cent to 6 per cent,), wit,11 a slight decrease in the glycerine (from 50 per cent to 46 per cent), yields more potent pollen extracts, which also have a. higher nitrogen content. Patients who hare been treated with both types of extracts report greater local reactions, with more itching:. following subcutaneous injection of doses of the new extracts. In preceding articles 1 have stressed the importance of obtainin g a satisfactory local reaction from each individual dose? and roughly speaking, the better the reactions, the better t,he results. Any theoretical ob,jection to the definitely higher salt content can be met. when we consider that Clock’s” origina. estracting fluid, which is still quite widely nsetl, containcad ti6+$ per cent glycerine and 331/! per cent saturated salt, solution, or about, I1 per cent sodium chloride. Pollen extracts with 6 per collt SOC~iUlll chloride swm to give slightly larger skin test rcact,ions than the 7 per cent sodium chloride extra& advocated by IIollister-Stier. Fort,y-six pw