I treated this patient twice a week for three months and had the satisfaction of seeing this asthmatic sensitiveness entirely cured; for he has remained free from it ever since, now twenty years. This case lead me to try the current on hay fever patients, passing the current over the eyes and nose and sometimes inside of the throat, wherever there was itching, just as Dr. Metcalfe had done with his manipulating finger. If cough or asthma were present, I treated them as in the case of the artist just described.
Treatment. With one sponge on the nape of the neck or between the scapulæ, pass the other sponge over the eyes, nose, and throat for ten minutes. Use a gentle current, just enough for the patient to feel it but not strong enough to cause pain. If cough or asthma are present, twitch the respiratory muscles for ten minutes more, not forgetting that the respiratory muscles include the abdominal muscles, those of the whole length of the spine, and the cervical muscles all around, as well as the pectorals and the scapular muscles.
In regard to polarity, I do not think it makes any real difference which pole is used in each place. I am old-fashioned enough to remember when the polarity of a faradic battery was determined by holding two sponges of equal size, one in each hand, turning the current on quite strong and calling the stronger one the negative. In those days I learned to use this "negative" pole for active treatments and this is still my habit, putting the positive on the back and twitching the muscles with the negative. If this exposition seems crude to the modern electro-therapeutist, I can only say that I am not writing a treatise on electro-physics, but relating the experiences in actual practice over a period of nearly thirty years. The customs in which I was brought up are good enough for me until I see real reason for changing them. The electro-therapeutist is at liberty to turn the sponges around and use them the other way if it appeals to him as more fitting.
One of the most brilliant cures of hay fever with faradic electricity was made by Dr. Thomas P. Birdsall, of Pawling, New York, about fifteen years ago. The patient was a farmer's daughter of twenty years who had lived all her life on a farm in Putnam County and had suffered many years from hay fever. Dr. Birdsall used the faradic current from a small portable battery three times a week, while the patient remained on the farm in the irritating environment, and in one season made a cure that has lasted to this day.
Other Forms of Electricity. It is probable that all forms of electricity will relieve or cure hay fever. I have used the faradic current because it was the most convenient. It is still the most convenient current for most physicians. The old reports are of the galvanic. Ballenger recommends the leucodescent light. I have seen several reports of the use of the high frequency current and Tousey devotes a short paragraph to it, as follows:
"The author suggests the use of a glass vacuum electrode insulated by a double wall except at its extremity, which can be applied to all parts of the nasal mucosa but especially to the inferior and middle turbinated bones.... A similar application may be made to the outer surface of the nose at the sides, halfway from the root to the tip." (Second Edition, page 598.)
From my experience with patients I doubt whether many of them would submit to the intra-nasal spark. A theoretical objection to using any form of high frequency or diathermia on the outside of the nose is that, in some skins, frequent application of these currents causes a permanent dilatation of the capillaries of the skin, resulting in permanent redness. I tremble to think of the wrath of the fair lady whom you should cure of the hay fever by endowing her with a permanently red nose. I know that these currents are used on the face freely by dermatologists and have often made a few applications to break up a catarrhal cold; but I have seen cases enough of capillary dilatation and its intractability to make me pause and choose for the nose and face the surely safe faradic current rather than the more spectacular but risky high-frequency.