Hay-fever

Hay-fever, also called HAY-ASTHMA and SUMMER-CATARRH, a disease mostly met with in early summer, has as symptoms those of a common catarrh—viz. redness and swelling of the nasal mucous membrane, with a copious watery discharge and repeated paroxysms of sneezing, irritation of the eyes, and intense headache. There are also present general malaise, loss of appetite, and more or less feverishness; and difficulty of breathing is added when the bronchial mucous membrane is affected. Hay-fever is most commonly a disease of adult life, but it may occur at all ages. It usually returns annually when the patient is subjected to the exciting cause, which is oftenest in the form of floating pollen of different grasses, although other things such as dust or bright sunlight may set up an attack. Three factors essential to the production of hay-fever are a nervous constitution or idiosyncrasy, a local irritability, and an external exciting cause. The treatment to be successful must be directed to these: (1) improve the health by quinine, arsenic, or other tonics, and soothe the nervous state by bromide of potassium or antipyrin; (2) act locally by pungent inhalations, as iodine, or by the thermocautery; (3) finally remove the patient from the cause by sending him to the seaside or for a voyage. See Hay Fever, by Sir Morell Mackenzie (4th ed. 1887).