It may be objected that my newly discovered point in the naso-pharynx is merely the posterior end of the inferior turbinated bone, as described by Mackenzie and Sajous and others long ago, and that the spraying of the nasal passages simply benumbs the sensitive areas, anterior, middle, and posterior, that are well known to rhinologists. This may be so. At any rate, the method just described makes possible a treatment of these areas in every case, though far from skilled assistance. The treatment by cautery must always remain a treatment by the skilled specialist in selected cases. Even if my sensitive spot in the pharynx is nothing new, this method will at least place in the hands of thousands of hay fever sufferers a simple method of relief, which thought there is more satisfaction than in being reputed the discoverer of the resurrection bone itself.[1] FOOTNOTES: [1] Throughout the middle ages, there was a firm belief in the existence in the human body of an indestructible bone which was thought to be the necessary nucleus of the resurrection body. With the revival of dissection and the study of anatomy in the sixteenth century, many anatomists searched for it eagerly but it was never found. CHAPTER V _THE FARADIC CURRENT AND OTHER FORMS OF ELECTRICITY_ 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 oedema, because it is curable by electricity; or that electricity cures hay fever because it is a neurosis. These are examples of reasoning by analogy, found so frequently in medical writings, so plausible and so perilous, leading more often to error than to truth. So I will not argue the matter at all, but simply state the result of my observation that faradic electricity cures hay-fever. This electric treatment takes time and trouble, but if both physician and patient are willing to take that time and trouble, more permanent cures may be secured than by any other treatment known to me. The use of electricity to cure hay fever is one of those bits of therapeutic gold that lie long hidden in medical literature, are found for a moment, and quickly lost again. Back in 1875 Beard and Rockwell speak of two cases, one cured and the other relieved by descending galvanism. In 1871, Neftel relieved a case of hay asthma by galvanizing the vagus; but recent books know nothing of it. Monell, Bigelow, Massey, and Bartholow know electricity about the nose only as a cautery. Tousey's big book suggests the local application of the high frequency current in hay fever, of which more anon at the end of this Chapter.