Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1884-09-19

ing pamphlet, explains the true origin
and nature of that mysterious ailment,
hay fever, as being essentially nothing
more than pollen poison. Or course
such poisoning differs immensely from
infection by bacterial germs, because
the floating pollen of the air does not
increase and multiply IN the human
system, as they do; 1t merely sets up n
ritation of the mucous membrane, CIV
ing rise to catarrh and asthma. Bot
the two cases have this much at least IN
common-that the origin OF the disease
has been traced in either instance to
definite external cause, in living germs
or spores, and that by avoidance of this
cause we may reasonably hope to bring
the malady under proper control, If not
to extirpate it altogether. The theory
that hay fever is due to the pollen
of grasses is no new one- IN
the contrary, it has for some time been
growing in favor with Psychologists, and
DIR. Mackenzie's able exposition may
be looked upon rather as the conciu-
sive vindication of the pollen hypothe-
sis than as the first statement OF a new
truth. Indeed, as long "a hay fever has
been known at all, the popular name by
which it is familiarly called has asso-
ciated it with the Towering time Ell the
ordinary meadow grasses; though the
irritation has generally been aScrioed
rather to the odor of sweet vernal grass
and scented holcus than TO the distlnc-
tive action of the pollen itself The lat
ter species is unknown In English
meadows, but sweet vernal grass IL
familiar to most of us as the peculiar
spiky plant to which new mown
hay owes with us the whole OF
its delicious fragrance. Still hay fever,
like influenza or cholera, did not occur
in Europe, according TO DIR. Mackenzie,
in the good old times" whenever that
may bel, or if il did occur it was over
looked in the multiplicity of medieval
diseases. As the complaint does not
actually kill, IL may have been consld-
cred unworthy serious attention In the
DAYS of the Black Death and the Great
Plague but it is singular that the first
detailed account was given by Bostock
at as late a period AZ 1919. Since that
date hay fever seems to have grown 30
alarmingly in frequency that DIR. Mac
kenZie is fain to account for Its rapid
development by supposing a new aoqui-
sition Of irritating powers on the part
of certain vegetable bodies. Surely,
nONbNbT, IL Is IuOIb bhhtt bf3 W.
tits ours, have changed, not 1t.
Helmholtz was the first author to set
forth a definite theory Of hay fever,
which he believed to be produced by
yibrios (the modish bacllli were not
then in vogue and he held that the vi
brios, though always existing in the
mucous membrane of the nostrils, were
especially excited 10 spasmodic activity
k..,o haaf Rnt ~ DF RiQnk-
lev, Of Manchester, who led the way in
showing that this disagreeable com
plant is really due only TO the pollen of
flowers and grasses. Instead of max
ing his experiments IN cOrpore Uiii, DIR.
Blackley made them on his own person;
he inhaled pollen, and artifieially &c
quired the complaint and he proved
that in certain other instances the sever
ity of the disease bore direct relation
to the amount of pollen in the air. DIR.
Mackenzie, treating the matter in the
most vigorously scientific manner, di-
vides the cause Of summer catarrh into
two classes, the predisposing and the
exciting. The predisposing cause is of
course the possession of a certain pc
culiar idiosyncrasv, dependent perhaps
on abnormality in the mocus membrane,
or in the small veins and nerves with
which ii is supplied. As usual, the Ill
innate nature of the abnormality Of
any is too delicate for direct investiga-
ton. The idiosyncrasy il generally de-
veloped quite suddenly, and when once
acquired il tends to increase most un
pleasantly with each succeeding sum
mer. And the moral of that is: IF
possible. avoid catching hay fever at all
for the first time, and you will most
probably never catch il for the second"
Oddly enough, the idiosyncrasy seems
almost confined to the English race,
at home or in America. Scand ina.
vians, Frenohmen, Germans and
Italians all enjoy comparative inn
munity. French and German doctors
in New York noticed no eases among
their compatriots there, though the dis
ease is painfully common among the
Americans proper. IL is tlatterine to
our Anglo-Saxon intelligence that hay
fever also specially affects "persons of
some education and fair social posi-
ton" In the West Indies, where yell
low fever rarely attacked people of COL
ored blood, light brown families are
quite proud II one of their number
catches the aristocratio infection, and IL
may, perhaps, be equally oonseling to
the sufferers from hay fever to learn
from DIR. Merriman's experience the
complaint belongs principally to the
upper and middle classes" So much
is this the case that farmers and agri.
cultural laborers, who are most ex-
posed to the exciting causes, seldom
suffer from it. But in persons who
possesses the requisite idiosyncrasy, DIR.
Blackley showed quite conclusively that
hay fever can be artifcially produced
by inhalation of pollen. Rye, wheat,
oats and barley affect the mucus mem
brano even more powerfully than the
wild grasses. In America, however, it
lisa sort Of wormwood that oftenest
gives rise to the peculiar catarrhal
symptoms. IL must be remembered
that everywhere pollen is liable to float
in the air in large quantities during the
towering season of wind fortified
plants, like the grasses, cereals and
wormwoods, and hay fever may there
fore possibly be caught even at sea or
In the heart of the great cities. ThHs
showers Of pine pollen have fallen at
st. Louis, Mo-, transported from forests
at least four hundred miles TO the south
ward.-PdH Mat Gdsette.