166 
CONCERNING SNEEZING. 
[Nature and Art, November 1, 1866. 
CONCERNING- SNEEZING. 
By the Rev. V/. Houghton, M.A., E.L.S. 
S NEEZIN' Gr may be popularly defined as a spasm 
due to an irritation applied either directly or 
indirectly to that portion of the Schneiderian * 
membrane, which is the expanded distribution of 
the olfactory nerve, the seat of the special sense of 
smell. The complex phenomena of “reflex action” 
are also involved in the act. The irritation may 
be caused directly, as by snufF, and so forth ; or in- 
directly, as by the sudden impression of light upon 
the retina, or by the well-known effect of a sudden 
chill. 
Probably there are few people in England — 
perhaps I may say in the world — who pass a single 
day without one or two occasional sneezings. 
There is no doubt much difference among in- 
dividuals in this respect. Much, too, depends upon 
the season of the year ; a person will, generally 
speaking, sneeze more in the summer than in the 
winter, on account of the glare of the sun, and a 
more pulverised condition of the road. Not a few 
suffer from the very unpleasant affection called 
“hay-fever,” which is characterised by a troublesome 
itching of the eyes, and great irritation of the 
membrane lining the nasal passages, producing 
constant sneezing, and a general constitutional 
disturbance. The numerous minute particles of 
the pollen of grasses and other plants from the 
meadows are distributed by the air and conveyed to 
people’s nostrils, which immediately reply to their 
presence by a fit of sneezing. The dust and smell 
arising from a hay-field are eminently productive of 
these disagreeable sensations, and hence the name 
of the complaint. There are some people, however 
— but not such as are affected with “ hay-fever ” — 
who are rather pleased than otherwise with the pre- 
liminary titillation of the mucous membrane of the 
nose with its natural result, at which the whole 
frame shakes convulsively. And then a person 
may be taken with a fit of several consecutive 
ebullitions at most inopportune moments. It must 
be rather awkward for actors sometimes when, in 
the midst of some solemn declamation, the un- 
welcome sneeze gives warning of its approach. 
Imagine Hamlet, at the end of the well-known 
words, 
“ O that this too, too solid flesli would melt, 
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,” 
to be seized with a paroxysm of sneezing ! Would 
not the audience fear lest those violent sternutatory 
agitations should prove the prelude to that much- 
wished for consummation 1 ? 
But what is sneezing, and how shall we define 
>;s The mucous membrane lining the nasal fossa sometimes 
called pituitary, receives this name from Schneider, who 
was the first to show that this secretion was due to the 
mucous membrane, and did not proceed from the brain as 
had previously been supposed, 
it ? Etymologically the word has reference to the 
nose, the Anglo-Saxon noese, the German nase, the 
Latin nasus, &c., hence the word used to be written 
without the initial “ s,” as “neesing” or “ neezing,” 
and Shakespeare — 
“ And then the whole quire hold their hipS and Ioffe, 
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear 
A merrier hour was never wasted there. 
( Midsummer Night’s Dream, aotii., sc. 1.) 
Mi\ Hensleigh Wedgewood thinks that the name 
of the nose is taken from an imitation of noises 
made through that organ. Similarly, Webster 
defines the noun sneeze to be “ a sudden and 
violent ejection of air, chiefly through the nose, 
with an audible sound.” But this is manifestly 
incorrect, for the ejection of air is always normally 
through the mouth. Let any one, when threatened 
with a sneezing fit, keep his mouth closed, so as to 
compel the expulsion of air through the nostrils, he 
will find the operation extremely unpleasant, and 
will not care to repeat the experiment. However 
this may be, it is certain that the irritation in the 
nose is the primal cause of the sneeze, and therefore, 
the words nose and (s) neeze stand in close relation- 
ship one to the other. Sneezing may again be defined 
to be a spasmodic effort to get rid of any causes of 
irritation which affect the lining membrane of the 
nose, such effort being accompanied by a violent 
ejection of air chiefly through the mouth. Sneezing- 
may be symptomatic of disease, as in the case of 
common catarrh, measles, but alone it can never be 
depended upon as a diagnosis of disease. 
The ancients attributed various properties to the 
act of sneezing, amongst which may be especially 
mentioned that of stopping hiccups. There is 
rather an amusing passage in the Symposium of 
Plato on this subject. It appears that Pausanias, 
one of the party, had done speaking, and that it 
was Aristophanes’s turn next to address them ; but 
unfortunately this latter individual Avas seized Avith 
a bad fit of the hiccups, — probably brought on from 
eating too much dinner (two wA^o-yoio/t;,) — and he 
was unable to talk ; whereupon he turns to Eryx- 
imachus, a physician, who sat just below him, and 
addresses him : “ Eryxiinachus, you ought either 
to stop my hiccups or else to speak in my turn, 
until I can cure them.” To which Eryximachus 
replied, “ I will do both ; I will speak in your turn, 
and Avhen your hiccups have ceased you shall speak 
in mine; but while I am speaking, if by your 
holding your breath for a long period, your hiccups 
cease, all right ; if not, gargle your throat with 
water ; if they are very A r iolent, take something of 
this kind Avith Avhicli you can tickle your nostril and 
sneeze ; if you repeat this once or twice the hiccups 
Avill cease, be they ever so violent.” * Aristophanes 
* Sympos. 185, D. 
