By Rosin-weed, Ichthyol And Faradic Electricity, With A Discussion Of The Old Theory Of Gout And The New Theory Of Anaphylaxis BY...

Consulting Physician to Yonkers Homœopathic Hospital; to St. Mary's Hospital, Passaic; and to the Ann Mary Memorial Hospital, Spring Lake, New Jersey; Consulting Physician to Cumberland Street Hospital, Brooklyn, Department of Public Charities Formerly Professor of Practice of Medicine in the New York Homœopathic Medical College; formerly Visiting Physician to Flower Hospital; to Hahnemann Hospital and to the Metropolitan Hospital, Blackwells Island, Department of Public Charities, New York BOER

The essentials of this book, rosin-weed, ichthyol, and faradism, were announced at the Baltimore meeting of the American Institute of Homœopathy, in June, 1916, and published simultaneously in the New England Medical Gazette and in the Journal of the American Institute of Homœopathy in December, 1916. They were presented also at the New York City branch of the United States Hay Fever Association in July, 1916; at the annual meeting of the same Association at Bethlehem, New Hampshire, in August,

Under the name "hay fever" I include rose-cold and the so-called hyperæsthetic catarrh or vaso-motor rhinitis, all characterized by intense itching of the eyes, nose, and throat, free discharge, sometimes asthma, the attacks being precipitated by strong odors, dust, or pollen. There are many forms of the disease, some occurring in May or June, some as early as March, before the budding of vegetation, some even in the winter; but the large majority of cases occur in August, coincident with the fl

For many years the fluid extract of rosin-weed has been known in my family as a remedy for rose-cold and hay fever. This use of it was discovered by my father, Dr. Alexander H. Laidlaw, in the epizoötic days of 1872, when horses were dying by the thousands all over the United States and Canada. Though he knew it first as a horse medicine, its use seems to be forgotten in veterinary practice, for I find no mention of it in available veterinary books, old or new. In my father's practice this remed

While the use of rosin-weed was discovered by my father, the value of ichthyol in the treatment of hay fever and the point in the naso-pharynx that controls the symptoms are discoveries of my own or, at least, I fondly think so. In current medical literature, I find no reference to it. In Merck's History and Preparation of Ichthyol , a summary of its use to 1913, ichthyol is advised in hypertrophic and atrophic rhinitis, but hay fever is not mentioned. Reference to recent books, as Coakley, Ball

The distinguished dermatologist, Dr. Duncan Bulkley, used to argue that lupus erythematosus was a neurosis because he could cure it with phosphorus and thought so highly of this tour d'esprit that he made it the subject of a Presidential Address. In the same way I might argue for my favorite theory that hay fever is a neurosis, an angioneurotic œdema, because it is curable by electricity; or that electricity cures hay fever because it is a neurosis. These are examples of reasoning by analogy, fo

The fundamental error in all the literature on hay fever is the teaching that the lesion is a peculiar kind of catarrhal inflammation; whereas it is not an inflammation at all, catarrhal or any other kind. The symptoms of hay fever resemble those of catarrhal inflammation, but the resemblance is only superficial. The resemblance is striking and must be so to have deceived so many skilled observers, but it is only superficial, nevertheless. When you see a patient with eyes red and swollen, overfl

In searching through the early literature of rosin-weed, as related in Chapter XIV I noted that the article in the Eclectic Medical Review recommending rosin-weed for asthma seemed to have been copied only in the southern and western medical journals. I was curious to know if the aristocratic medical editors of the east, the intimates of Bigelow and Holmes and Warren, had deigned to notice a drug of such lowly parentage, discovered by the Indians and indorsed by the medical heretics. I began wit

In the last chapter we read that the theory of a gouty diathesis as the constitutional basis for hay fever originated with Dr. Gueneau de Mussy, in 1868, on account of the many resemblances that he found between the symptoms of gout and the symptoms of hay fever. We have now to consider the fate of the de Mussy doctrine in those countries where hay fever is best known and has been most closely studied, Great Britain and America, Germany and France. De Mussy in Great Britain and America. If any s

Fifty years ago de Mussy pointed to the resemblance between hay fever and gout and claimed hay fever as a manifestation of the gouty diathesis. As related in Chapter VII, he based his theory on the resemblance between the history and symptoms of hay fever patients with those of gouty patients. In his day he found both hay fever and gout confined to the Anglo-Saxon race, both hereditary and familial, both exhibiting urticaria, eczema, and asthma, and he recognized that the lesion in the eyes and

The idea of preventing disease and poisoning by preparing the body with minute doses of that poison, gradually increasing until the body is immune, is an ancient one. The practice is Ur-alt, as my favorite German history books say; for it has been found among savages and primitive peoples and is practised in a crude way by every boy who accustoms himself to that noxious weed, tobacco. Then, there are the Psylli, whom Lucan tells of, who were by heredity immune to snake poison and who could make

In his paper in The Lancet , the pioneer in the use of pollen extracts, Freeman, observed that "many cases of supposed hay fever" were simply acute bacterial catarrhs. He excluded hay fever by the lack of any reaction when timothy extract was dropped into the eye. The bacterial infection was proved by culture from the eyes and nose, usually yielding the staphylococcus. The final proof was the cure of the patient by an autogenous vaccine made of the offending microbe. In the past few years, this

Until recently, diet in hay fever was a matter of avoiding meat and strawberries and the result was usually unsatisfactory. With the conception of hay fever as an anaphylaxis and the recent studies in food anaphylaxis, the subject of diet in hay fever assumes a new and inviting aspect. This new view of diet in hay fever begins with Schloss's masterly study of a case of food anaphylaxis reported in the American Journal on Diseases of Children , 1912, No. 6. A good review of the subject with refer

When we wish to learn anything about American medical literature, we turn to the big Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General. The botanical name of rosin-weed is silphium . In the Index Catalogue, the word rosin-weed does not appear, but, in the first series, under silphium , there are ten references, and thereby hangs a tale. Ancient Silphium. In ancient Greek and Roman medicine there was a famous gum called silphion (Latin silphium ) which, like all popular medicines, was the bet