To the Editor:
—I have read with approval and interest the defense of goldenrod as a cause of hay-fever in The Journal, May 31, by my distinguished confrère, Dr. John Noland Mackenzie of Johns Hopkins University.As an old practitioner of otolaryngology I have seen the various nostrum serums, infusions, etc., "have their day and cease to be," and have noted "how fast does system follow system from sunlight to the sunless land."It was in 1891 that I first developed well-marked hayfever, while on a visit to Manitou Springs, Colo., of more than 6,500 feet elevation, at the foot of Pike's Peak, where the commonly believed pollens of hay-fever are not found. I was then practicing medicine in Kansas City, and up to that time had only a supersensitive schneiderian membrane, sneezing frequently, under varying conditions of slight nasal irritation, changes from heat to cold, sunlight, etc. I spent