Hay fever, its etiology and treatment : with an appendix on rose cold / by Morell Mackenzie.

Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hay fever, its etiology and treatment : with an appendix on rose cold / by Morell Mackenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    -+o+ HAY FEVER, though not dangerous to life, causes at certain times such extreme discomfort to some of its victims as to make them quite unfit for their ordinary- pursuits ; many others, without being actually disabled, are rendered utterly miserable during the most agreeable season of the year. Under these circumstances, an attempt to elucidate the nature of so troublesome a malady would seem to be highly desirable. The affection has received various names,1 such as Hay Asthma, Pollen Catarrh, Summer Catarrh, Rose Cold, Peach Cold, and Idiosyncratic Catarrh, according as the most prominent symptom, or the supposed cause in a particular case, has been made the basis of nomenclature, and I have thought it convenient to make use of the one most commonly employed in this country. The disease may be defined to be a peculiar affection of the mucous membrane of the nose, eyes, and air-passages, giving rise to catarrh and asthma, almost invariably caused by the action of the pollen of grasses and flowers, and therefore prevalent only when they are in blossom. The history of the affection is interesting in many respects, 1 Dr. Gueneau de Mussy (“ Gaz. Hebdom.,” January 5, 1S72), proposed to call the affection Spasmodic Rhino - bronchitis; and it has occurred to Dr. Elias J. Marsh, of Paterson, New Jersey, that it might appropriately be described as Catarrhus venenalus. More recently my accomplished pupil and namesake, Dr. John Mackenzie, of Baltimore (“Maryland Med. Journ.,” June 21, 1884), has suggested the magnificent title Coryza vaso-motoria periodica. Dr. Herzog (“ Mittheil. d. Ver. d. Aerzte in Steiermark.” [Reprint, Wien, 1SS2]), it is true, has proposed the term Rhinitis-vaso-motoria for nervous sneezing, but I do not think that any advantage is likely to accrue from the use of a term which involves the acceptance of an unproved theoiy.