As de Mussy's lecture is not readily available, I quote from the Boston Journal some of his conclusions.
"I have dwelt at length on the constitutional condition in order to show in what diathetic conditions spasmodic catarrh has developed. The direct and collateral hereditary tendency appears to indicate a diathetic origin. The two sisters belong to a gouty stock. Chronic urticaria and granular pharyngitis are not rare in gouty families.
"Periodicity is characteristic of many arthritic affections. The spring-time periodicity is especially common to them. The periodicity of this coryza places it in the same category as the arthritic affections which generally manifest themselves by regular or irregular paroxysms.
"If hay fever has been more often noticed in England than France, can this be due to the greater frequency of gout in the former country?
"Continuing the study of these analogies which, if not enough to prove a common origin, are enough to justify further study of the question, I find in one of my patients a morbid condition due to an arthritic source, i.e., an urticaria alternating with asthmatic coryza (hay fever), the latter appearing with symptoms such as injection and itching and tumefaction of the eyes which recall the cutaneous affection to which it had succeeded." (Italics mine. Here is my urticaria theory expressed in 1868. G. F. L.)
"Behind a vast number of nervous troubles, behind a vast number of bizarre functional anomalies stamped with a nervous imprint, we find arthritism." (Italics mine. Here is my pet theory of the gouty origin of neurasthenia and perhaps Beard's neurotic constitution, beloved of rhinologists. G. F. L.)
"As to analogies between summer catarrh and urticaria, I wish to draw no conclusions from them. If it be admitted that both are due to arthritism, their succession and the analogy in their local development can be understood." (My urticarial nature of the lesion again. G. F. L.)
I might add that de Mussy reports success in preventing the appearance of the symptoms by the use of quinine for seven or eight days before the expected attack. During the attack he used sulphur and arsenic for the catarrh.
In the next chapter we will consider the fate of de Mussy's theory of gout as the underlying cause of hay fever.