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

Date:
1885
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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.

    18/68 (page 12)
    Ignoring external or atmospheric causes, Dr. Daly,1 of Pitts- burg, maintained the hypothesis, that the etiology of the complaint would be found in the intrinsic conditions of the nose, and he reported three cases of hay fever which had been cured by surgical treatment. He has since been followed, though with some differences of opinion, in the same line, by Dr. Roe,2 Professor Hack,3 4 Drs. Sajous,'1 John Mackenzie,5 6 and Harrison Allen.0 The views of these practitioners will be considered in detail further on ; but it may be stated here, in general terms, that the doctrine that hay fever depends on chronic disease of the nose is open to the fundamental objection, that so few of the many sufferers from nasal disease are affected by the pollen of plants. In accordance with the usual method of dealing with etiology, the causes of hay fever may be conveniently divided into the predisposing and the exciting. The predisposing cause of the complaint is the possesssion of a peculiar idiosyncrasy, but on what that idiosyncrasy depends is quite unknown. Indeed, it would cease to be an idiosyncrasy if a satisfactory explanation could be arrived at. Whether it is due to some local abnormality affecting the structure of the mucous membrane, the capillaries, or the periphery of the nerves, but of too delicate a nature to admit of detection by available methods of research, cannot be determined. Of the sufferers one may here and there be found who is affected with chronic nasal disease, but most of them appear to be perfectly healthy as regards the nose, except during the short period when they are attacked by hay fever. Whilst millions of people are exposed to the 1 “Archives of Laryngology,” vol. iii. p. 157. 1S82. 3 “Pathology and Radical Cure of Hay Fever.” New York, 1SS3, and “Second Article” reprinted from New York Medical Journal. Appleton, New York, 1884. 3 “Wien. Med. Wochenschrift.” 1SS2-S3. 4 “ Med and Surg. Reporter.” Dec. 22, 18S3. s “N.Y. Med. Record.” July 19 and Oct. 18, 18S4. 6 “ American Jour. Med. Sci.” Jan. 1S84.