The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-10-02
HAY Fever.

ing pamphlet, explains the true ORIGIN
and nature of that mysterious ailment.
hay fever, as being essentially nothing
more than pollen poison. OF course
such poisoning differs immensely from
injection by bacterial germs, because
the floating pollen of the air does not
increase and multiply in the human
system as they do; it merely sets up
irritation OF the mucous membrane
giving rise to catarrh and asthma. Rut
the two cases have this much at least in
common-that the origin of the disease
has been traced in either instance to a
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.
II not to extirpate it altogether. The
theory that hay fever Is due to the
pollen OF grasses is no new one. On
the contrary, it has for some time been
growing in favor with Psychologists, and
Dr, Mackenzie's able exposition may
be looked upon rather as the conclu-
sive vindication of the pollen hypothe
Sis than as the first statement of a new
truth. Indeed, as long as hay fever
has been known at all, the popular
name by which it is familiarly called
has associated it with the Towering
time of the ordinary meadow grasses:
though the irritation has generally
been ascribed rather to the odor az
sweet vernal grass and scented holcus
than to the distinctive action of the pol
len itself. The latter species is un-
known in English meadows, but sweet
Vernal grass is 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 DR.. Mackenzie,
IN 1.-THE good old times whenever that
may be) or if it did occur it was over
looked in the multiplicity of medieval
diseases. As the complaint does not
actually kill, it may have been consid-
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 period as 1919. Since that
date, hay fever seems to have grown SO
alarmingly in frequency that DR.. Mac
kenzie is fain to account for it's rapid
development by surprising a new &C
QUESTION of irritating powers on the
part OF certain vegetable bodies. Surely,
however, it is more likely that, tbs
we. It's ours, have changed, not it."
Helmholtz was the first author to set
forth definite theory of hay fever,
which he believes to be produced by
vibrios (the modish bacilli were not
then in vogue,1 and he held that the
vibrios, though always existing in the
mucous membrane of the nostrils, were
especially excited to spasmodic activity
by summer heat. But it was DR.. Black
ley, 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 ia cOrp0re Uili, DIR.
Blackley made them on his own per-
son; he inhaled pollen, and artifcially
acquired the complaint; and he proved
that in certain other instances the
severity of the disease bore direct rela-
ton to the amount OF pollen in the air.
DR.. 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 causes is OF
course the possession of a certain pecu-
liar idiosyncrasy, dependent perhaps on
abnOrmality in the mucous membrane,
or in the small veins and nerves with
which it is supplied. As usual, the Ill
| innate nature of the abnormality iii
any, is too delicate for direct investiga.
ton. The idiosyncrasy is generally de-
yeloped quite suddenly, and when once
acquired it tends to increase most UNI
pleasantly with each succeeding sum.
mer. And the moral of that is: al
possible, avoid catching hay fever at al
for the first time, and you will mos
| probably never catch it for the second. y
| Oddly enough, the idiosyncrasy seem.
almost confined to the English race
at home or in America; Scandina
riaas, Frenchmen, Germans and
| Italians all enjoy comparative i'm
munity. French and German doctor:
in New York noticed no cases among
their compatriots there, though the
disease is painfully common among the
Americans proper. 1t is tlattering tt
our Anglo-Saxon intelligence that hay
fever also specially affects persons o
some education and fair social posi-
| ton" In the West Indies, where vel
low fever rarely attacks people of col
ored blood, light brown families art
quite proud if one of their humble
catches the aristocratic infection, and i
may, perhaps, be equally consoling Il
the sufferers from hay fever to learr
that in DIR. Merriman's experience tn,
complaint belongs principally to tn
upper and middle classes" So mucl
is this the case that farmers and agri
cultural laborers, who are most ex
posed to the exciting causes, seldOn
suffer from it. But m persons VIII,
possess the requisite idiosyncrasy, DIR
Blackley showed quite conclusiveiy tina
hay fever can be artiticially produces
by inhalation of pollen. Rye, wheat
oats and barley Affect the mucous mem
brane even more powerfully than tn
wild grasses. In America, however,
is a sort of NORWOOD that Offences
gives rise to the peculiar catarrha
symptoms 1t must be remembered
that everywhere pollen is liable to tioa
in the air in large quantities during tn
towering season of wind fertilizer
plants. like the grasses. cereals an
wormwoods. and hay fever may there
fore possibly be caught even at sea
| in the heart of the great cities. Thu
showers of pine pollen have fallen a
St Louis, Mo-, transported from forest
at least four hundred miles to south
| ward - Pal Mall Gnzetta