In 1899 the eminent Holbrook Curtis,1 confronted with a patient suffering from what was then called rhinedema, prescribed twenty-eight Sandow gymnastic exercises for him on rising and before eating dinner, and a walk of 10 blocks (presumably New York blocks) after breakfast and after luncheon, with an increase of a block a day up to an unspecified limit. Not content with this rigorous regimen, he further advocated a rectal sitz douche for the colon night and morning with 4 quarts of water. (An apparatus for this purpose once manufactured in Maine bore the euphonious title of the cascade enema bag.) All this treatment was said to be good for the portal circulation. In the light of the present extensive knowledge of allergic rhinitis and the increasingly rational treatment of it, modern physicians are inclined to smile at this homely prescription and tolerantly to condone its lack of scientific foundation and