Wichita eagle., 1889-09-06
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9ailg eagle
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
SOME CURIOUS FACTS AND FAN.
CIES ABOUT HAY FEVER.
q Disease Whose symptoms Differ with
Each Sufferer-A Great Variety of Rem
edies to Choose from and Be Cured
Perhaps.
Special Correspondence.l

sons who have hay fever, and with that
strange spirit of emulation which seems in
herent in human nature, multitudes of these
persons congregate every summer when their
disorder is rampant, and try, each one the
hardest, to convince his fellow sufferers that
his own case is worse than all other cases
Nobody who suffers likes 10 think, probably
no one is able TO think, that anybody else
really suffers as much as he does. To have
hay fever was formerly accounted mark of
distinction, something like six fingers and
toes, or a strawberry mark in the small of
the back, and it was considered to indicate
large brain power. Daniel Webster and
Henry Ward Beecher had hay fever, and
James Jones has it. Obviously, there is
something in common between the three
and James Jones is proud of the fact he
might also be proud of the fact that all three
were in the habit of shaving, but that does
not occur to James, although the rest of the
community have slowly mastered the logic
of the matter, and no longer revere Mr.
Jones because he happens to sneeze in Au-
gust
Knowing that many New Workers are
about to 60 TO Bethlehem, Pa, TO the annual
hay fever convention, sought out one of
them, a man of some distinction and former
publisher of The World, and tried to learn
something about the complaint He was not
loath to talk No hay fever patient is when
the conversation turns on hay fever. They
say itsneezy thing to hold forth about the
disorder At all events, Mr. P spoke
fuently / asked him what the hay fever
was
In the first place" he said, sit is not the
hay fever" This was sufficiently astonish-
ing, but he calmly proceeded to make things
worse Hay fever, " he continued, resembles
it somewhat, and so does a rose cold. Both
these diseases come in June What we really
mean when we say hay fever is a sort of au-
tamnal catarrh which is indigenous to Amer
lea. One thing about it is really marvellous
If were cast away on a desert island without
a calendar, | would know when Aug 20 came
around for that is my day for beginning
Some have it as early as Aug. II, and | know
one man who is free until Aug. 20, but what
ever a mans day may be, he makes no mis-
take Of date ON that day 1t is as regular as
rent day.
Il don't know what causes it. Neither does
anybody else, though theories are numer-
GUS enough. nfusoria. bacilh, fungous
growths and other things are blamed for it,
but nobody knows after the second or third
year ne has had the disease. The first year
or two he generally knows all about it.
What he does know-and after be has his
knowledge well burtoned up and put away
be never loses its that on a certain dav of
the year he wakes up with goosetiesh all over
him. The entire surface Of his body is plas-
tered several inches thick with a chill Then
he begins to sneeze. Having begun to do
this he finds that he has to devote his entire
time and all his energies to sneezing There
may be other things that he enjoys doing or
which be feels obliged TO do for business rea-
sons, but he can't do 'em if they interfere
with sneezing. That becomes, perforce, the
principal occupation of his life. He can't
even curse his luck excepting in the brief in
tervals between sneeZes.
'If he goes into the sunlight his eyes get
infamed. His nose gets iniamed, anyhow,
and when the inflammation begins it spreads
downward and backward through the
throat to the lungs, sparing nothing within
reach as it goes, till it winds up with an
asthma that takes right hold of him, and
makes him sit up nights till he takes TO the
opium or the ether habit"
"What do you do for itl" l asked.
'Oh, you do any number of things, and
none of them are Of the slightest use. You
buy all sorts of remedies that don't help you
ID particle, and you consult physicians who
prescribe Tor you, knowing all the time that
nothing Oh earth will afford you any decided
relief unless you SO away. For the second
mysterious thing about the complaint is that
it is perfectly easy TO so away and leave it
behind, if you know wEere to 60. IL you
don't go away you viii have it till the first
hard frost comes, and that will completely
cure you, as suddenly as you were attacked.
Then you don't have it any more till your
regular day next year. If you can't get
away, all you can do is to avoid aSgravating
the symptoms, and grit your teeth and bear
it. Some people swear good deal. but /
never found that that helped-much."
But where do you get away from it'"
There are a great many places where you
can be free from it, or, at least, measurably
free. Wherever YOU so you will probably have
some catarrhal symptoms that are likely to
last till midwinter if YOU escape the violence
of the seizure The symptoms are, however,
only slight, and seldom amount even to ali
annoyance. There have been "a few eases in
which pleuro-pneumonia has ensued, but it is
not believed that the hay fever was responsi-
bic. What you have TO DO If you want 10
run away is to cross the ocean, go ID sea, go
somewhere south of Cape Hatteras, or M
north or into some mountainous region where
YOU viii be twenty-five or twenty-three hun
bred feet above the level of the sea. | have
known people to get rid Of it by staying at
Fire Island, or at some other places on the
coast where the sea air was very strong.
There are other curious things about hay
fever Il is s,iii that if you are sick 81 some
other disease when this one is due you won't
have this one Healthy people are more
liable to it than sickly ones. II young per
son gets II he is likely 10 outgrow 1t in middle
age, but if he gets 1t late in life II viii get
worse year by yesr as he grows older. lr Is
not hereditary My father got it fifteen
wears after did And | don't suppose there
Is ANYTHING at all in the old idea that intel
lectual people were more disposed to have 1t
than Others. That theory long ago diSap
peared. but then all the other theories l ever
heard disappeared also after they had been
aired long enough 10 lie dlSproved."
All this. however. is only one mans expo
rience and views. l have taken pains 70 in
quire OF many others, and the result Is
amusing.
The MEDICAL treatment of hay fever is 50
varied AMI contradictory as 10 be almost
ludlcrous. Dr. Henry Lassing, the editor Of
The American Analyst compiled list OF the
remedies recommended by physicians. medl-
cal Journals anu text books. Ii numbered
$50 medicinal substances comprising such
widely differing bodies As salt and vitriol,
borax ana carbolic acid burning sui phur
and laudanunl, Mumn's extra dry ana Hun
jadi Janos lime water and corrosive sub
Innate, alum and campGora,ed oil A slight