Chapter XIX 



HAY FEVER 



Historic The medical writers of the six- 

 teenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 

 mentioned the existence of a certain form of 

 catarrh of the mucous membranes, of annual and 

 seasonal periodicity, which was correlated in 

 some way with the flowering period of plants; 

 but the recognition and establishment of hay 

 fever as a true clinical entity is accredited to 

 John Bostock (Medico-Chirurgical Transac- 

 tions, London, 1819, x, 161). The first definite 

 connection between the pollen of grasses and 

 hay fever was recognized by John Elliotson 

 (The Lancet, 1830, n, 370) in 1830. The medi- 

 cal world is indebted to Dunbar (Zur Ursache 

 nnd Specifichen Heilung des Heufiebers, Muen- 

 chen, 1903) for the exhaustive scientific proof 

 of the specific action of pollen as the causative 

 factor of hay fever. 



The work of Noon (The Lancet, June 10, 1911, 

 814), Freeman (The, Lancet, September 16, 

 1911, 1572), Clowes (Proc. Soc. Exp. Biolouy 



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