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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    mucous membrane, and with an hypertrophied condition of the vascular tissue covering the turbinated bones and the lower portion of the septum ; and, taking into account the cavernous tissue of the turbinated bodies, he thinks that the vasor-motor theory fully explains the phenomena of the disease. In his more recent publication,1 Dr. Roe has some- what elaborated his views. He calls attention to the spicula of bone, which, he observes, are often found projecting across like spurs, exciting irritation and producing thickening of the opposite surface. Dr. Roe is of opinion that every person who suffers from hay fever has, at some other period of the year, “when entirely free from the attack of hay fever, more or less chronic rhinitis or nasal catarrh, although often not sufficiently severe2 to give rise to much annoyance.” In other words, Dr. Roe thinks that everybody who is subject to hay fever has a “ cold in the head ” some time during the year. Although I have not gone into this question, I do not feel inclined to dispute the position which my friend has taken up, for I believe there are very few people who do not suffer from coryza at some period during the entire twelve months. He admits, however, that “ in some cases there must be a special proclivity for these terminal nerve-fibres to become diseased, when so small an amount of disease of the surround- ing tissues so readily affects them, and when in other cases we find no indication of these nerves being involved, however badly the surrounding tissues may be diseased.” This state- ment appears to me to concede the whole question at issue. Special proclivity and idiosyncrasy are so nearly allied as to make it unnecessary to attempt any differentiation. In the interval between the first and second articles of Dr. Roe, Dr. John Mackenzie published his views. In addi- tion to his remarks on idiosyncrasy already referred to, he endeavoured to show that there are certain sensitive spots 1 “ Hay Fever.” Appleton & Co., 1SS4. * Second article, p. 7.