The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-21
RELIGION DEMANDS LOYALTY TO COUNTRY AND RULERS SAYS
 CARDINAL GIBBONS IN SPEECH
THE HAY FEVER
 MIGRATION

While St. Sneezer, the patron of hay fever victims, has no special day on the calendar, and his devotees cele- brate on various days the arrival of the annual paroxysm, perhaps the ma jority emit their first ssneeze of the season in the latter part Of August. few aristocrats among the curious sect of Sneezers develop their cases in June, and boast of having "rose fev- er," although medical men assert that the rose Is seldom to blame. These early birds have no standing among the autumnal sneezers, however, and their boasts of superiority are greeted with sniffs and sneers.
 Many curious statistics have been collected with the hay fever victims, who have an association of their own, which holds annual conventions in the sections which are immune from the disease. It is estimated that there are about 200, 900 hay fever victims in the United States. The average length of the attack is given as forty-two days. It is further estimated that each per son sneezes seventy-three times dur ing this period. This would give a total of 13,200,000 sneezes sneezed by the sneezers of the United States
 
 few sneezers, as the climate of the Dominion is unfavorable to the de- velopment of a hay fever aristorcracy. Many sections of Canada, like New Hampshire and northern New York, claim complete immunity from the disease, and each August witnesses the migration of many of Uncle Sam's sneezers to the haven of refuge offer ed beneath the Union Jack. Hay few CT is very prevalent in Great Britain. but the continent of Europe is com paratively free from it's ravages. t
 The humble, plebeian plant known as ragweed is now said to be the prin- cipa1 source of hay fever. Among the victims, however. the weed is known by its imposing scientific name of ann brosia, which. has much more "class' than ragweed. More than a hundred different plants have been supected of being distributors of the pollen which causes hay fever. but only twenty five grasses and eight plants have. been found to have definite action upon persons of hay fever ten dencies. Golden rod used to be con- sidered an active hay fever agent, but. while 1t is known to aEgravate the dis ease, it rarely if ever is the exciting cause of an attack.
 Another favorite dictum of the hay fever aristocrats-thato only the highly cultured contract the disease-has also been rudely shattered by statistics, which show that the lowest as we'll as the highest forms of human life may contract the sneezing habit. It is true that city folk do suffer more than country people. This Is alleged to be due to the fact that the rural resident is exposed to the pollen from child hood, while the inhabitant of city Is not so hardened. Women are more prone to hay fever than men. and young and middle-aged persons are most often attacked. HJt
 Hay fever victims will soon be able to celebrate the centenary of their disease, as it was first described by Bostock, who called 1t ''catarrhus aes- tivus," in 1919. Since then hundreds of books and pamphlets about hay fever have issued from the press. and the perusal of this literature is one of the favorite recreations of the vic- tims during the hay fever season.
 ''As a rule," says Sir William Osler. "the disease is aggravated by residence in agricultural districts. The dry mountain air Is unquestionably the best; there is no general rule and there are cases which do we'll at the sea- side" Sir William also points out that there is a bogus hay fever. produced in imaginative persons by suggestion, but these fraudulent sneezers are sell dom exposed.