Hyposensitization Therapy In Ragweed Hay Fever

To the Editor:— Our critics, Drs. Lowell and Franklin, are mistaken in thinking that we included inappropriate patients who failed to exhibit an exacerbation during the ragweed season or whose symptoms were trivial. Observation of patients during the pollen season, history, and skin tests, seem to us sufficient to establish the diagnosis of ragweed hay fever. They state that the dosage we used was too small to yield optimal therapeutic results. The data from their study which are the basis for this statement are not available to us. The dosages we employed are, however, accepted practice, and have the advantage of avoiding constitutional reactions which might confuse the picture. We are criticized for we failed to describe the antigen doses in detail. The average maximum dosage attained in our patients for each year of our study were: 2,500 protein nitrogen units in class A patients, and 4,500 to 5,500 in