Hay fever : its etiology and treatment a lecture delivered at the London Hospital Medical College / by Morell MacKenzie.

  • Mackenzie, Morell, 1837-1892.
Date:
1884
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hay fever : its etiology and treatment a lecture delivered at the London Hospital Medical College / by Morell MacKenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    run on shore owing to the obscurity of the atmosphere.” Again, in speaking of the distribution of pollen, Darwin reminds us that the ground near St. Louis, in Missouri, has been seen covered with pollen as if it had been sprinkled with sulphur, and there is good reason to believe that this had been transported from the pine forests at least 400 miles to the south.^ A shower of yellow pollen was wafted to Philadelphia ^ from some distant pine forest so recently as the 16th of March (1883). It caused such a thick deposit as to lead ignorant people to take it for brimstone. These facts are sufficient to show that the influence of pollen may be experienced under circumstances where it would not generally be looked for. Whilst asserting that pollen is the universal cause of the peculiar form of catarrh known as hay fever, I do not mean to deny that other irritating particles might produce a similar complaint if persistently brought in contact with the mucous membrane. Thus, it is well known that powdered ipecacuanha will in some persons cause a peculiar form of asthma closely resembling ha;^ asthma, and with many people the fumes of burning sulphur have the same effect. I have frequently observed slight attacks resembling hay fever produced by the insufflation into the larynx of powdered lycopodium, and, indeed, I have for this reason been compelled to give up the use of this drug as a diluent for medicinal powders. Some people experience symptoms .somewhat analogous to those of hay fever from smelling certain fruits, whilst others are troubled in the same way by the presence of cats, rabbits, and guinea-pigs, and Bastian ^ suffered from an affection closely resembling hay fever whilst he was dissecting the ascaris megalocephala, a parasite which ^ “The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom.” Eondon, 1876, p. 405. 2 “Philadelphia Med. News,” April 7th, 1883. ^ “ Philosophical Transactions.” 1866, vol. cvi.