Hay fever : its causes, treatment, and effective prevention. Experimental researches / by Chas. Harrison Blackley.

  • Blackley, Charles Harrison, 1820-1900.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hay fever : its causes, treatment, and effective prevention. Experimental researches / by Chas. Harrison Blackley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    tliern are given in the volume. Thus, in a little more than thirty months, the author had collected his information, had obtained some experience of the disease, and had written and published his work upon its nature and treatment. Dr. Beard is a member of two neurological societies, and seems to think it quite correct to place hay-fever among the neuroses. In treating of this part of the subject, he says:* ‘ Hay-fever is essentially a neurosis—that is, a functional disease of the nervous system The debilitating in- fluence of heat and the external irritation of a large number of vegetable and other substances, are exciting causes merely, widely varying in their effects with different in- dividuals, and of themselves are powerless to induce, or at least to sustain, an attack As the disease is not due to any single specific cause, animal or vegetable, as has been supposed, no specific will ever be found for it.’ § 7G. The question which relates to the cause of the malady, the author tells us, ‘was prepared after the first edition of the circular of inquiry, and the names of the exciting causes were taken from the replies to that circular. In this question the patients are asked: ‘ Which of the following causes are most likely to excite the 'paroxysms ?' Cinders ? Out-door dustIn-door dust ? Roses Other fragrant flowers ? Fresh hay ? Old hay ? Smoke ? Gases ? Foul air ? Pollen of corn ? Bright sunlight ? Bright gaslight ? Camphor, hartshorn, and ether ? Fruit of any kind ? Dampness ? Sudden chills ? Night air ? Per- fumes of any kind ? Over-exertion ? Brimstone matches ?' Indigestion ? Roman wormwood 1 “ Sneeze-weed ” Are there any other causes that excite the paro'xysms in your caseV ‘ The three facts of most significance that are brought out by this inquiry,’ Dr. Beard tells us, ‘ are :— ‘1st. That the number of special exciting causes of hay- fever is very large. Over thirty are hei’e specified. ‘ 2. Ha^q either fresh or dried, only comes about the middle of the list, while dust leads off by a large plurality. The disease might be more appropriately termed dust-fever or sun-fever than hay-fever. * llay-Fever, by Dr. Beard, pp. 77, 78.