Hay-fever, hay-asthma : its causes, diagnosis and treatment / by William Lloyd.

  • Lloyd, William.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hay-fever, hay-asthma : its causes, diagnosis and treatment / by William Lloyd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    frequent rains, and the dews at night, prevent these particles from leaving the ground. He hit upon one very important feature in the phenomena of hay- fever, namely, the influence which rain has in diminishing the intensity of the symptoms. Kirkman seems to have been the first patient who tested, by an experiment upon himself, one of the supposed causes of hay-fever—the pollen of grass.* He tells us that a day or two before Christmas he noticed, in his hot-house for flowers, one single plant of the anthoxanthum odoratum in blossom, loaded well with pollen. He thought it would be a capital oppor- tunity for trying this particular grass, so he plucked it, rubbed off the pollen with his hand, and sniffed it up his nose ; almost immediately it brought on sneezing, etc., and all the symptoms of hay-fever, which continued for an hour and then left him. Dr. Abbots Smithf gives numerous cases in which the exciting cause of the attack seems to have been the emanations from grass and other flowering plants. He also states “ that strong light as well as great heat will induce or aggravate the symptoms.” The work of Dr. Morrill WymanJ deals with the hereditary character of the disease. The disease is said to commence in America at two different periods—in * Quoted from Dr. Phoebus’ Typische Fruhsommer-Katarrh, p. 137. t On Hay-fever, Hay-asthma, by William Abbots Smith, M.D., 4th edition, London, 1866. + Autumnal Catarrh (7lay-fever), by Murrill Wyman, M.D.