64 JOURNAL OF THE [October, 



tures, and compels some of these to lie in contact with each 

 other." 



And again, p. 79 "Given this condition of preparedness, and 

 it is clear that many emanations, too subtle for the healthy sub- 

 ject to detect, become transformed into very real sources of 

 irritation to those who are so circumstanced as to possess it. 

 The tendency to suffer such derangement is in no case, proba- 

 bly, the consequence of any peculiarly irritating endowment of 

 the emanation itself. The phenomena following its access to 

 the nose result from the fact that it falls, not upon healthy 

 tissues, but upon a surface rendered susceptible by the loss of 

 its epithelium, and already irritated by structural disease, or its 

 equivalent — pressure. A trivial additional irritant then suffices 

 to excite the reflexes proper to the nerve-supply of the affected 

 area. " 



Whatever may be the doubts and disputations on this subject 

 in other countries, it is evident that among the numerous suf- 

 ferers from this disease in the United States there is overwhelm- 

 ing testimony to the fact that the distressing symptoms of Hay 

 Fever are induced by the inhalation of vegetable substances, 

 such as pollen, dust, hairs, the odorous exhalation of certain 

 grasses, as of the Sweet Vernai-Grass {Ant/ioxanthu?n odoratum, 

 L.), &c. 



It is well known that Hay Fever patients are sometimes 

 peculiarly susceptible to distressing symptoms induced by con- 

 tact with the skin of the Peach. There are subjects of this 

 malady who could not be enticed by any considerations even to 

 pass wittingly under a fruit-laden peach-tree. For they know 

 that the consequence of even a near approach to the tree would 

 be a more or less severe attack by their old enemy. 



An esteemed acquaintance, a subject of Hay Fever, who, 

 during our late war, in the Fall of 1863, commanded a large 

 body of dismounted troopers of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, in 

 East Tennessee, reports that, while his men were deployed as 

 skirmishers, and pushed well up the side of the mountain at 

 Cumberland Gap, engaged in almost continuous fighting for 

 three days, his head-quarters were in a peach-orchard, and his 

 tent pitched under a large peach-tree, where he was obliged to 

 remain when not called to other parts of the field. When the 

 enemy surrendered and the excitement of the conflict was over, 



