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HAY FEVER 
 
 AND 
 
 CATARRH OF HEAD 
 AND NOSE 
 
 WITH THEIR 
 
 PREVENTIVE AND CURATIVE 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 E. B. FANNING, M. D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 BOERICKE & TAFEL. 
 
 1901. 
 
 5\ 
 
 
THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 CONGRESS, 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 AUG. 28 1901 
 
 COPVRItHT EKTRV 
 
 ^ CLASS O^ xXt. N«. 
 COPY B. 
 
 -*v> 
 
 
 > 
 
 COPYRIGHTED 1901 
 BY BOERICKE & TAFEL. 
 
 T. B. & H. B. COCHRAN, PRINTERS, 
 / •• " ,VAN/?A«3T,3R, FA. 
 
 > • • 
 
 i * * 
 . • . * 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In offering this little volume to the 
 profession as a practical treatise on 
 this one very annoying disease, I feel 
 that it will fill a void in our literature, 
 and at the same time will reveal the 
 means of relieving and ultimately cur- 
 ing numberless cases. 
 
 The symptoms are nearly all taken 
 from my own case, but covers about 
 all the various pains and ill feelings 
 this disease produces. 
 
 In Part II. of this work I have given 
 a light, practical treatment on catarrh 
 of the head and nose, covering just 
 such cases as the busy practitioner 
 meets with every day, with the reme- 
 dies and their indications as I have 
 used them in my practice daily for 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 fifteen years, and successfully. I have 
 also given the remedies used under 
 different heads, namely, neutralizers 
 and contractors, which I trust will en- 
 able the physician to better adapt his 
 remedies to the disease. 
 
 E. B. Fanning, M. D. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., 
 
 1544 S. 13th St. 
 
To 
 
 Hay Fever Sufferers, 
 
 and 
 
 To All Who Have 
 
 Catarrh of Head and Nose, 
 
 Is This Work 
 
 Dedicated 
 
 By 
 
 The Author. 
 
HAY FEVER. 
 
 Its Cause and Effects, With 
 
 Preventive and Curative 
 
 Treatment. 
 
 Extract Taken From My Own Case. 
 
 Hay fever, as every physician is 
 aware, is a catarrhal affection ap- 
 pearing in some persons as early 
 as Jnly, bnt generally abont the 
 middle or last of Angust or first of 
 September, and continuing with 
 more or less violence until there is 
 one or more frosts to clear and dry 
 the atmosphere. The cause of this 
 horrible malady seems to be a very 
 baffling question to our patholo- 
 gists. I feel quite sure if they but 
 
8 Hay Fever. 
 
 knew the cause and the seat of it, 
 as I will endeavor to explain, the 
 prevention of this disease will be 
 carried out successfully in number- 
 less cases. 
 
 For thirteen years I have battled 
 with this affliction, only to conquor 
 and see the results of my most 
 earnest efforts practically illus- 
 trated and proved physiologically 
 and chemically during the season 
 just past. During the years I suf- 
 fered many persons asked what 
 was ailing me, and when I replied 
 hay fever they would invariably 
 remark sympathetically, " You can 
 never be cured, can you ? I always 
 answered, " There is only one way 
 to cure it, and that is to prevent 
 it." This assertion, I am quite 
 
Hay Fever. 9 
 
 positive, will hold good for some 
 time to come, for the prevention is 
 more easily accomplished and is a 
 surer and better cure. I never felt 
 but what in time I would master 
 it, but to determine the cause of 
 all this violent irritation and its 
 seat was the problem I had to 
 solve. The text-books gave me no 
 information ; in fact, they seemed 
 to almost ignore this one very im- 
 portant affection, and at the same 
 time their authors knowing very 
 well that thousands of people were 
 suffering with this disease every 
 season. 
 
 I was first attacked with it in 
 the summer of 1887, while practic- 
 ing in Smyrna, Del. It came on 
 me suddenly, about 2 A. M., like 
 
10 Hay Fever. 
 
 an ordinary attack of spasmodic 
 croup and lasted for a couple of 
 hours. I tried Hepar, Aconite and 
 Bromine without relief. Then my 
 wife, becoming alarmed, went for a 
 physician. I do not remember 
 what he gave me on that visit, but 
 the next day he prescribed Aurum 
 met. the thirtieth. I did not have 
 another attack at night that season, 
 and the whole trouble passed off 
 nicely ; but that remedy has never 
 done me any good since, although 
 it seemed to be well indicated. As 
 years passed the attacks grew worse, 
 lasted longer and were much more 
 severe. I feel sure I have suffered 
 all the horrors that any person has 
 ever suffered with this terrible af- 
 fection. 
 
Hay Fever. 11 
 
 The late Dr. Urie, of Chester, 
 Pa., prescribed Kali suL 5m. for 
 me one season and broke it up im- 
 mediately. Then I thought I had 
 a sure cure, but the next season it 
 returned with all its violence; and 
 when I thought the symptoms 
 called for this remedy I took it in 
 the thirtieth, but got no results. 
 I was at a loss to know what to do, 
 but not altogether discouraged. I 
 never experienced any relief again 
 until the season of 1894, the ac- 
 count of which I have given in 
 detail under the head of throat 
 symptoms. I never received any 
 relief after that until the past 
 season, when it only threatened, 
 but did not set in. During the 
 last four years I have given it 
 
12 Hay Fever. 
 
 more thought and study, for I felt 
 if any person was capable of 
 searching out the cause and its 
 seat a physician who is a suf- 
 ferer should be the one to do it. I 
 was sure there was a great deal of 
 acidity to the discharges from the 
 nose, mouth and eyes. Then, after 
 I concluded it was an acid in the 
 secretions and not the nerves, it 
 puzzled me to know where or how 
 it generated, but as I continued to 
 study it gradually unfolded itself 
 to me. Then, after finding the 
 cause and its seat, I felt it was still 
 a difficult task to learn just why 
 it bothered us at that one par- 
 ticular season, but this was finally 
 solved. 
 
 There is one thought that we, 
 
Hay Fever. 13 
 
 as physicians, must strive to keep 
 in our minds, and that is this, that 
 there are acids of one kind or an- 
 other circulating in our blood more 
 or less of the time. This need not 
 necessarily be limited to catarrhal 
 cases, and the amount is altogether 
 controlled by the weather; and the 
 acid in excess is the one which 
 produces its own particular symp- 
 toms, whether they are catarrhal, 
 rheumatic, or hay fever, or some 
 other. 
 
 For a number of years I con- 
 cluded that the whole trouble 
 originated in the spinal nerves, 
 and through them affecting my 
 stomach, as this organ would get 
 terribly out of order on the least 
 provocation. My appetite would 
 
14 Hay Fever. 
 
 entirely fail, I would grow weak 
 and have strong malarial symp- 
 toms. If I would stand in the sun 
 for a few minutes sneezing would 
 set in. Chills would run up my 
 spine. So while the sun's warmth 
 was soothing to me in one sense 
 it aggravated the real condition. 
 
 This was during the summer of 
 1890, and while I was practicing 
 in Maryland. These same symp- 
 toms would be caused if I were rid- 
 ing along the road in a top car- 
 riage, if I were facing the sun, but 
 only during the months of July 
 and August of that one year, which 
 was the year of my worst suffer- 
 ing. I still maintained the same 
 opinion as to the cause after I 
 came to this city, but concluded it 
 
Hay Fever. 15 
 
 came from the nerve centres at the 
 base of the brain, for dnring later 
 years almost the first symptoms 
 exhibited were abnormal heat in 
 the occipital region and profuse 
 sweating of the head at night. 
 The amount of the latter exceeded 
 anything I ever saw. After these 
 sweats continued for a few nights 
 I would have queer and peculiar 
 sensations in my brain. Then I 
 thought it must be caused by 
 anaemia of the brain, due to im- 
 poverished blood, so I studied dif- 
 ferent works on this disease, but 
 found no connection between 
 anaemia and hay fever. The more 
 I read and studied the more I be- 
 came convinced that it was not in 
 the nerves at all, but in the blood. 
 
16 Hay Fever. 
 
 Then by studying my physiology 
 and chemistry on these fluids, its 
 actions and changes under the 
 action of certain of its chemical 
 salts, also the effects of climatic 
 and atmospherical changes, I 
 learned that a lack of the chlorides 
 and sulphates in the blood cells 
 caused them to relax, and that an 
 increase of the iron salts would 
 cause them to contract again, and 
 an insufficient supply of oxygen 
 and an incomplete oxygenization 
 of the blood in sultry or damp 
 weather causes acid to form in this 
 fluid, and as soon as this begins to 
 take place the blood begins to relax, 
 and as it relaxes water increases. 
 This acid fluid penetrating every 
 gland and tissue of the body, irri- 
 
Hay Fever. 17 
 
 tating the various membranes and 
 glands, causing, as it does, watery, 
 irritating discharges from the eyes 
 and nose, with violent, spasmodic 
 sneezing, are a few of the many 
 objective symptoms, to say noth- 
 ing of the numerous subjective 
 ones, gives some idea of what this 
 circulating poison can produce. 
 After I became convinced that the 
 cause was an acid, and its seat was 
 in the blood, it took me quite a 
 long time to learn just how it got 
 there and what was necessary for 
 its production. 
 
 Further explanations of these 
 salts, above mentioned, and their 
 actions will be given under the 
 heads of climate and treatment. 
 
 I always noticed the fact that if 
 2 
 
18 Hay Fever. 
 
 I were feeling well at the begin- 
 ning of the season I did not suffer 
 so severely or so long from the 
 attack. But if I had been suffer- 
 ing with catarrhal colds and my 
 system was more or less exhausted 
 from the effects of the same, I 
 suffered more intensely, and would 
 not wholly recover from it until 
 late the following spring. 
 
 Last spring I suffered with an 
 attack of grip which ended up in 
 catarrhal bronchitis, from which I 
 lost considerable flesh and strength. 
 Finally I got better, but I was a 
 physical wreck and in no condi- 
 tion to do battle with my old 
 enemy. For that reason I dreaded 
 its approach, as I was sure I would 
 suffer severely. But I began with 
 
Hay Fever. 19 
 
 preventive treatment and got my 
 system recuperated again, and 
 waited in vain for the attack, which 
 to my gratification did not molest 
 me except in a slightly threaten- 
 ing manner. My appetite failed 
 for a few days, but it soon returned 
 again with double force, and I held 
 my strength all through the sea- 
 son, notwithstanding I remained 
 in the city all summer, never going 
 farther from my office than Fair- 
 mount Park and return. 
 
 Just why this disease will at- 
 tack a person on the same day 
 every year and continue to do so 
 annually for a period of forty years 
 is more than I have been able to 
 discover. I am acquainted with 
 one such case, that of a lady whom 
 
20 Hay Fever. 
 
 I had met but once, and afterwards 
 was informed that she was a ter- 
 rible sufferer from hay fever. We 
 were both living in the same town 
 in Delaware, but shortly after 
 meeting her she and her husband 
 moved to Pennsylvania and I 
 moved to Maryland. 
 
 During my second attack I got 
 to thinking about her, and won- 
 dering in my mind if being a ter- 
 rible sufferer from this disease 
 meant worse suffering than I was 
 experiencing. The more I thought 
 about it the more I felt I ought to 
 send her medicine. Finally I made 
 up my mind that I would do so 
 the next season, and without first 
 writing to learn if she would ac- 
 cept and take it, or whether she 
 
Hay Fever. 21 
 
 was a believer in sugar pills. But 
 I felt sure this would not have 
 much weight with a person in the 
 grasp of this disease, for I am posi- 
 tive they would take anything, 
 from a disciple of any school, even 
 if they only saw an imaginary hope 
 of relief. 
 
 The following season, at about 
 the time, judging from the in- 
 ception of my own attack, I pre- 
 pared a package of Arsenicum yn, 
 Pulsatilla iooox, powders, one of 
 each to be dissolved in a separate 
 glass a third or half full of water. 
 Dose, teaspoonful every half hour, 
 alternately. About a week after- 
 wards I received a letter from her 
 stating she had received the letter 
 with medicine, which she prepared 
 
22 Hay Fever. 
 
 and began taking at once. Relief 
 came in about two hours, and the 
 whole attack broke up in about 
 three days, for which she felt very 
 grateful to me; also stating she 
 had had the disease every year 
 since she was ten years old, and 
 that it had appeared on the same 
 day each year — August 19th — for 
 about thirty-five years, and during 
 all those years she had never ex- 
 perienced relief from anything she 
 had ever taken before ; so I felt 
 quite elated, and the next year I 
 prepared and sent the same reme- 
 dies, which she took, but without 
 any effect at all, and as soon as 
 I had read her letter in reply and 
 noted what she said I concluded 
 it was Apis she required, so I sent 
 
Hay Fever. 23 
 
 Apis iooo, and Nux third dilution 
 for stomach and bowels. These 
 remedies relieved her some, but 
 not entirely. 
 
 Several years after this, and after 
 I moved to this city, I wrote her, 
 and the first opportunity she had 
 to visit here she called at my office. 
 We had quite a long talk. She 
 felt quite elated over the partial 
 success of the treatment, and as- 
 sured me she had never suffered so 
 severely as she did before taking 
 the medicine. I then gave her 
 medicine and put her on Hensel's 
 Tonicum. I never heard from her 
 again until after I wrote her about 
 a month ago, when she stated she 
 was still a sufferer from the old 
 trouble. I mention this case at 
 
24 Hay Fever. 
 
 length to show how certain reme- 
 dies will break up the attack in a 
 certain system one season and ab- 
 solutely fail the next in the same 
 system, when apparently all things 
 are equal. 
 
 Etiology. 
 
 The cause of hay fever, as we 
 have shown, is an acid in the blood, 
 but to study this subject better let 
 us divide the patients into two 
 classes. First class will include 
 all those cases who have catarrh of ' 
 the head and nose more or less all 
 the year round, and have hay fever 
 in its season. Second class, those 
 who do not suffer except in hay 
 fever season. The first named is 
 of the genuine acid diathesis, and 
 
Etiology. 25 
 
 suffers more or less with colds from 
 every change of weather from dry 
 to damp, for the blood and general 
 system relaxes and contracts just 
 as the weather relaxes and con- 
 tracts, and every time this occurs 
 a fresh attack of head and nasal 
 catarrh results, and by the time 
 this breaks and discharges another 
 change in the weather occurs and 
 the same condition repeats itself. 
 But if after one or more of these 
 attacks the weather clears and con- 
 tinues dry for a prolonged period 
 he will get quite well. 
 
 The catarrhal subject is more 
 susceptible to climatic changes 
 than any other person. He feels 
 every change no matter how slight 
 it may be, and one or more sneezes 
 
26 Hay Fever. 
 
 is his signal. The amount of 
 change will generally determine 
 the number of sneezes. If it is a 
 change from clear weather to fair 
 and colder he will seldom suffer 
 any bad effects, and trouble, if any 
 occurs, will generally correct itself, 
 providing the weather remains 
 clear. 
 
 Whenever a change to wet 
 occurs, whether cold and damp or 
 warm and damp, the first effect on 
 the catarrhal patient is an ac- 
 cumulation of acid in the blood, 
 with relaxing of this fluid, and an 
 increase of w r ater, with relaxing of 
 the whole system. If the weather 
 is raw he is very chilly and cannot 
 get warm unless right over a hot 
 fire. If the weather is sultry he 
 
Etiology. 27 
 
 is very languid, sweats and feels 
 lazy and miserable. If it is August 
 and the weather continues sultry, 
 the acid and water increase more 
 and more, the secretions from mem- 
 branes and glands become acrid, 
 the patient begins to sneeze, etc. 
 If it is remembered that acid and 
 water increasing in the blood are 
 always the cause of relaxing of 
 this fluid the balance of the theory 
 can be quite readily understood. 
 Apparently the catarrhal form of 
 hay fever seems to be nothing 
 more or less than an aggravated 
 condition of a certain form of 
 catarrh of the head and nose, and 
 this aggravation is wholly due to 
 the' patient's exhausted condition 
 and a decrease in the amount of 
 
28 Hay Fever. 
 
 oxygen in the atmosphere at a 
 particular season of the year. 
 
 The second class or simple hay 
 fever cases may belong ordinarily 
 to the alkaline or neutral class at 
 all other periods of the year, and 
 only reduced to the acid condition 
 at this particular season, and then 
 only because their blood is robbed 
 of a portion of its oxygen diet. 
 Being differently constituted from 
 his co-sufferers, he cannot stand 
 the sea air laden with its abundance 
 of chlorides and sulphates, its bro- 
 mine, iodine, magnesia, etc.; his 
 must be a more rarefied or lighter 
 atmosphere, for he is not ordinarily 
 a catarrhal subject. What his 
 system requires as stated above is 
 a little more oxygen ; perhaps 
 
Symptoms. 29 
 
 there is already in the system suf- 
 ficient iron, but not enough of the 
 former coming from the atmosphere 
 to nourish it sufficiently to hold the 
 blood in contraction. This would 
 seem to be the condition present 
 in some cases I have seen. 
 
 Symptoms. 
 
 These are numerous and show a 
 marked similarity in all cases. 
 The catarrhal cases suffer much 
 longer than the pure hay fever 
 ones do. Under the names of the 
 different organs affected I will 
 detail the symptoms as near as I 
 can as they affected me, which I 
 feel quite sure will cover almost 
 every pain this disease has ever 
 produced. 
 
30 Hay Fever. 
 
 Heredity undoubtedly plays an 
 important role in the reproduction 
 of this disease, and coming from 
 the source it does it cannot be 
 ignored as a prominent cause. 
 
 Eyes. 
 
 We will speak of these first, as 
 
 generally the first symptoms of 
 
 the disease are felt in these or- 
 gans. Some seasons as early as 
 
 the middle of June, if the weather 
 
 was close and hot, I would have a 
 
 feeling as if down were on the 
 
 lashes, or feathers before eyes ; at 
 
 other times sparkling or like moons 
 
 before them, and if it got very 
 
 sultry the lashes would feel crossed; 
 
 but these would all disappear on 
 
 the approach of better weather, and 
 
 I would think no more of it. 
 
Eyes. 31 
 
 These conditions would appear 
 and disappear again and again, 
 just as the weather fluctuated from 
 clear and dry to moist and sultry, 
 until the middle of July #r first of 
 August, when the weather became 
 hot and humid ; then the head 
 trouble would set in and all the 
 former troubles would be aggra- 
 vated, and the symptoms above 
 mentioned were more or less con- 
 tinuous. The discharge from the 
 eyes, which at first is watery and 
 slightly irritating, becomes more 
 slimy and acrid, and as the disease 
 proceeds the secretions become 
 mixed with matter or tough mucus, 
 which can be pulled out in strings 
 and is very elastic. These strings 
 of mucus irritate the eyeballs and 
 
32 Hay Fever. 
 
 produce sharp pains like the pierc- 
 ing of very fine needles running 
 from before backwards into the 
 eyes. This mucus mats the lids 
 together at night, becomes d^ and 
 scratches the ball sufficiently to 
 awaken the patient, who finds that 
 he cannot open them, nor can he 
 see until he first soaks the lids 
 loose. I have had this occur to 
 me four times in a single night, 
 and on more than one occasion. 
 
 From the constant running and 
 wiping of the eyes the discharge 
 gets more or less on the cheeks, 
 and from its acidity corrodes the 
 skin, which finally dries and chafes 
 off in fine scales, only to be re- 
 peated over and over again. Small 
 tumefied bodies form on the edges 
 
Eyes. 33 
 
 of the lower lids. These irritate 
 the ball and create an inclination 
 to wipe the eyes, but to do this 
 simply means to set the whole 
 pain-causing machinery in motion. 
 Then there will be itching as a 
 greater inducement to rub, and the 
 more you do the latter the greater 
 the former, with burning, stinging, 
 smarting, and biting ; then again 
 these organs will become very red 
 and inflamed. At times there will 
 be a sensation as if sand had been 
 thrown in them. The lashes will 
 fall out very fast. One season I 
 suffered severely with styes. On 
 numerous occasions the eye-pains 
 have been so severe they forced me 
 to seek my bed. I always suffered 
 worse with my left eye first, then, 
 
34 Hay Fever, 
 
 as it would improve, the right one 
 would become worse, but would 
 not be bad so long. There is con- 
 siderable photophobia but not con- 
 tinuous. 
 
 Head. 
 
 The first symptom of import- 
 ance is an abnormal heat at base 
 of the brain, with profuse sweating 
 of the head at night, sufficient to 
 soak the pillow thoroughly and 
 sheet under my shoulders. The 
 more sultry the weather the more 
 intense the above condition. At 
 times my brain would seem weak- 
 ened and head felt light. This 
 always increased the optical illu- 
 sions very much, but these abnor- 
 malities improved with better 
 
Head. 35 
 
 weather, only to return when a 
 change for the worse occurred. 
 There was generally a cough 
 present which always caused vio- 
 lent headache. After the heat and 
 sweating would continue for a few 
 days gatherings would form in 
 the frontal sinuses and discharge 
 through the nose and hawked 
 from the throat a yellow or green, 
 slimy, acrid mucus of a very 
 brassy, coppery, sweet or salty 
 taste, and often so acrid it would 
 bite my tongue and lips before it 
 could be spat away. 
 
36 Hay Fever. 
 
 Nose. 
 
 This organ shows the first symp- 
 toms of the catarrhal nature of this 
 disease. It manifests itself first 
 by sneezing, followed by a bland, 
 watery, sometimes hot discharge, 
 which after a few days or a week 
 becomes slimy and irritating, mak- 
 ing the nose sore inside, and the 
 constant wiping which is required 
 to keep it dry causes soreness on 
 the outside 
 
 At times, when indoors, the nose 
 would close, but upon going into 
 the open air would open again, but 
 not always; for on very sultry days 
 the nose would be closed more or 
 less all the time; or if I should get 
 
Nose. 37 
 
 into a current of air it would open 
 almost instantly, and close again 
 just as soon as I returned to the 
 close condition. If the day would 
 happen to be unusually humid I 
 was very stuffy, and would have to 
 breathe through my mouth all day, 
 and would be constantly in dread 
 of spasm of the larynx. Sometimes 
 I could scarcely speak a word for 
 fear of this condition. At times 
 the membrane inside the nose will 
 begin to swell and completely close 
 the canal. Then if the finger is 
 thrust gently in the nose it will 
 come in contact with the mem- 
 branous walls, which to the touch 
 will feel somewhat like the sensa- 
 tion produced by pressing the 
 finger between two very fine, vel- 
 
38 Hay Fever. 
 
 vety cushions. When this is done 
 and the finger is withdrawn , it will 
 be found to be perfectly dry. The 
 membranes have a glossy feeling. 
 This dry condition only lasts for a 
 few seconds or perhaps half a 
 minute, when almost before I would 
 be aware of it a warm, mild, bland 
 water would run from this still 
 swollen membrane and drop down 
 into my lap. This sometimes 
 would be followed by a dozen or 
 more sneezes and the nose would 
 open, but the larynx would threaten 
 to close. Then it was necessary to 
 keep from saying a word, and to 
 keep the mouth firmly closed and 
 breathe as gently as possible 
 through the nose. At times there 
 seemed to be a distinct alternation 
 
Nose. 39 
 
 of the trouble between the nose and 
 throat, for almost always when one 
 organ was free the other was closed. 
 Sometimes my nose would be 
 stopped when in the open air, but 
 would immediately open on coming 
 inside, where the air was more dry. 
 But if it were a day when the at- 
 mosphere was at all dry, the op- 
 posite was the case. After the 
 sneezing had continued for a week 
 or so the discharge would turn a 
 greenish yellow or golden yellow, 
 slimy mucus. Then, by the dry- 
 ing and stopping of the anterior 
 nasal canal at night, it would run 
 backward through the posterior 
 nares into the throat and poison 
 that organ. At other times the 
 nose would be open and air would 
 
40 Hay Fever. 
 
 penetrate freely, but the mem- 
 branes would be too dry and the 
 breathing very unsatisfactory. 
 
 Throat. 
 
 There was always more real suf- 
 fering from this source than from 
 any other produced by this com- 
 plaint. You will notice in speak- 
 ing of the discharge from the nose, 
 that I said it was of a greenish- 
 yellow or golden-yellow color. Of 
 these three colors it is the latter 
 which is so acrid and irritating to 
 the membranes of the throat and 
 larynx. This always came from 
 the nose in small, more or less dry 
 pieces, which had a very strong, 
 sharp taste and I always, during 
 the latter years, knew just w r hen 
 
Throat. 41 
 
 my throat would be attacked. The 
 creamy-yellow or greenish mucus 
 are quite neutral, the former more 
 so than the latter. 
 
 The greatest suffering is pro- 
 duced through laryngeal spasm, 
 which is directly due to the irritat- 
 ing influence of this acrid mucus 
 on the membrane of throat and its 
 extension to the fine bronchioles. 
 Its favorite time of attack was 
 about 2 A. M., or after I had been 
 sleeping for three or four hours. 
 After lying down the nasal passage 
 soon closed from the mucus, which 
 became dry and gluey ; then it 
 passed backward into the throat, 
 and after being in direct contact 
 with the mucous membrane of these 
 parts they became irritated and 
 
42 Hay Fever. 
 
 poisoned and spasm was the result. 
 I would be suddenly awakened 
 with a sharp cough, my throat 
 would immediately , close and I 
 would have to sit up in order to 
 breathe. The upper part of my 
 chest sounded as if it were full of 
 fine stringed instruments. My 
 feet would grow cold, chin would 
 tremble, and as the cough grew 
 more violent my throat, outside 
 and in, would itch until it seemed 
 I could tear it out for relief. With 
 the cough there was headache, as 
 if it would burst, and the throat 
 would feel as if it would split. 
 Mouthful after mouthful of white, 
 frothy mucus would at first be ex- - 
 pectorated. Later, from the terrible 
 force exerted in coughing, my 
 
Throat. 43 
 
 throat would become raw and the 
 expectoration would be thoroughly 
 mixed with blood. This would 
 continue violent for an hour or 
 two. 
 
 The onset was always sudden 
 and grew worse gradually but 
 rapidly, and would die away gradu- 
 ally but very slowly. While the 
 spasm would be on me I would 
 sweat profusely, and the least 
 movement of the bed clothes would 
 cause a chill to run over me and 
 the cough to tighten, the wheezing 
 would grow worse, and with it the 
 cough would increase. These, 
 together with the tears running 
 almost a stream down my cheeks, 
 head and face, wet with perspira- 
 tion and underclothes soaked with 
 
44 Hay Fever. 
 
 sweat, the trembling of chin and 
 itching of throat, wheezing in air 
 passages and incessant cough, 
 makes a picture that he who suf- 
 fers from one such attack will 
 never, in my mind, forget. The 
 whole attack, from the time of the 
 first cough until I could lie down 
 and remain in a recumbent posi- 
 tion, during my worst season, 
 varied from three to three and one- 
 half to four hours. 
 
 I was always exhausted before 
 spasm would pass off, and as soon 
 as breathing was relieved or relax- 
 ing in bronchioles began I would 
 begin to belch up wind then I 
 knew positive relief was coming, 
 showing I had been inhaling more 
 air than I exhaled. This was in 
 
Throat. 45 
 
 August, 1889. I have never suf- 
 fered so severely for so long a 
 period since, except in July and 
 August, 1894. 
 
 On July 4th of that year, while 
 in Fairmount Park, I sat down on 
 the grass for about five minutes 
 watching my little girl play. Next 
 day I began to feel symptoms of a 
 cold in my head, which finally 
 developed into a severe catarrhal 
 attack in frontal sinuses and nose. 
 The discharge was free and copious, 
 of yellow and green mucus. It ex- 
 tended into the throat and then to 
 the upper bronchial tubes, and be- 
 fore this was any better hay fever 
 set in. This was about July 20th, 
 and was soon followed by night 
 sweats and exhaustion. The ca- 
 
46 Hay Fever. 
 
 tarrh was going deeper on my 
 chest and threatening the lnngs. 
 My wife having died, a little over a 
 year previous, with consumption 
 did not tend to encourage me in 
 the hope of recovery, and I knew if 
 I should end my days with the 
 latter disease it would help her 
 family to believe that consumption 
 was contagious, and I desired for 
 that reason, if for no other, to 
 regain my health. 
 
 One day while on my way to my 
 branch office, feeling so weak I 
 could scarcely put one foot before 
 the other, a coughing spell seized 
 me, and I was forced to stop and 
 lean against the bridge rail, for I 
 was crossing Gray's ferry bridge 
 at the time, when it ceased some- 
 
Throat. 47 
 
 what. I thought to myself it's all 
 up with me. I studied a minute 
 or so, then concluded that if I gave 
 up that would settle all ; so I pushed 
 on slowly, still coughing, spitting, 
 blowing my nose and wiping my 
 eyes, when I finally reached my 
 office. I immediately prepared 
 some Calcarea phos. sixth, in a 
 tumbler of water, and took a 
 swallow every half hour. This I 
 continued, and in three days the 
 night sweats ceased and in about 
 ten days the whole disease broke 
 up, but I mended very slowly. My 
 system became so exhausted and 
 the blood so impoverished from acid 
 and water that there was no reactive 
 force left in my system, conse- 
 quently when the cold weather 
 
48 Hay Fever. 
 
 came on I could not get on clothes 
 enough to keep me comfortable ; and 
 with every change in the weather 
 I took fresh cold , in the head, 
 nose and throat, and it was not 
 until the following June that I was 
 myself again. I have been worse 
 with hay fever, but never so low 
 before or since with catarrh. 
 
 For two seasons I suffered terri- 
 bly from strangling when attempt- 
 ing to drink anything, even water ; 
 if it attacked me when drinking 
 at meals, it would put an end to 
 everything for at least an hour and 
 sometimes two. My throat would 
 be weak for at least twelve hours, 
 and sometimes it required a night's 
 rest and quiet before I was right 
 again. To attempt to talk was 
 
Mouth. 49 
 
 out of the question, for my throat 
 would close immediately and with 
 it came intense suffering. 
 
 Mouth. 
 
 The mouth presents no very 
 special symptoms, except a very 
 annoying itching of roof far back. 
 When the disease is threatening, 
 and sometimes before it sets in, I 
 spat a great deal of slimy, acid sa- 
 liva, generally more towards even- 
 ing. I always knew what this 
 meant. At times, and if the saliva 
 is very acid, when ejected from the 
 mouth it will fly all to pieces, as if 
 blown through a coarse screen, 
 but when not acid it will hold to- 
 gether. Itching -in the ears and 
 
 throat at the entrance of the Eus- 
 4 
 
50 Hay Fever. 
 
 tachian tubes, and the throat was 
 sometimes very annoying. I also 
 suffered from a tickling on the 
 back part or dorsum of the tongue, 
 but not to any great extent. The 
 taste was sometimes very rank — 
 coppery or brassy. At times, when 
 coughing, I could detect a very 
 metallic odor from throat. When 
 this last condition was present I 
 was in constant fear of spasm of 
 the larynx, and for that reason I 
 dared not utter even a word ; for if 
 cold air touched that organ it and 
 the bronchioles would contract and 
 it would be fully an hour before I 
 would be relieved. 
 
 The symptoms given above hold 
 good in all catarrhal cases, but 
 vary somewhat in the pure hay 
 
Mouth. 51 
 
 fever cases. For instance, in the 
 latter cases there is very little 
 watery discharge from the eyes; 
 but the burning is so intense as to 
 cause a scarlet redness low down 
 under these organs, and to attempt 
 to rub them simply sets them on 
 fire. Again, these cases mend up 
 much sooner after a frost than the 
 former, for, just as soon as the air 
 is purified or contracted, they are 
 well again; but with the former 
 class it is not so, they have a run 
 down system and an ever present 
 catarrhal condition to correct, 
 which may continue for a longer or 
 shorter period, according as the 
 weather becomes wet or remains 
 dry and cool. 
 
 The reason the pure hay fever 
 
52 Hay Fever. 
 
 cases have little or no slimy or mat- 
 tery discharge from the eyes, but 
 only a burning instead, is because 
 they have no catarrh of the frontal 
 sinuses. They suffer with a flow 
 of tears during the attacks of laryn- 
 geal spasms, but these are seldom 
 of an acrid nature. 
 
 During the attacks of hay fever 
 the bowels were always more or 
 less constipated, the stools either 
 dark, dry and hard or dark, hard 
 and slimed over. The stomach gets 
 very sluggish and the smell of food 
 cooking most always destroys the 
 appetite. At times the urine was 
 very albuminous and generally 
 very yellow or like dog's urine, at 
 other times quite profuse and 
 lighter in color and more watery. 
 
Treatment. 53 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 This undoubtedly will be of 
 much more importance to the ma- 
 jority of physicians, and especially 
 the suffering public, than the cause, 
 but without a thorough knowledge 
 of the former the latter will not be 
 very successful. I have stated 
 above that there is a decrease of 
 oxygen going to the blood. This 
 means an increase of acids and 
 water. What we must do, then, 
 is to make up for this lack of 
 oxygen, and the only way it can be 
 accomplished is by giving a drug 
 which will hold the blood in con- 
 traction ; or, in other words, we 
 must neutralize the acid in the 
 
54 Hay Fever. 
 
 blood, and render it non-irritating 
 to the membranes. Iron is the 
 greatest blood contractor there is, 
 and probably the greatest blood 
 tonic, unless equalled by Chloride 
 sodcz. If the air is dry there will 
 be sufficient iron generated in the 
 system to contract this fluid. The 
 chlorides and sulphates are the 
 greatest blood neutralizes, except 
 Iron, which has the double action, 
 or is both a neutralizer and con- 
 tractor, and when these salts are 
 present in the blood in sufficient 
 quantity acid cannot be generated. 
 If either of these salts are lacking 
 in this fluid and the deficiency not 
 soon corrected disease in one of its 
 many forms presents itself and 
 
Treatment. 55 
 
 continues until the amount gener- 
 ated in the system is normal again. 
 If these minerals are in the blood 
 in sufficient quantity, and there 
 should from any cause be a dim- 
 inution of some other one of the 
 blood's salts, it will generally be 
 corrected through the harmonious 
 action of these three. I do not 
 mean that all we have to do when 
 we meet a case of hay fever is to 
 give the patient a prescription of 
 iron or salt, as the case may be, for 
 you will require many other reme- 
 dies besides these; in fact, these 
 two are as a drop in the bucket 
 compared with the number you 
 may require ; but you must keep 
 just one thought in your mind 
 when treating these cases, and that 
 
56 Hay Fever. 
 
 is to give the remedy which will in 
 your mind, and from the symptoms 
 present, neutralize the acid; and 
 unless you can do this you will 
 accomplish very little except, per- 
 haps, give temporary relief by 
 stimulation. 
 
 Now as to the acid, whether it is 
 lactic or oxalic, or muriatic or some 
 other, or a combination of two or 
 more of these acids that are known 
 to be in the blood at different times, 
 I know not ; but I have treated my 
 own case as if it were the first 
 named, and I have good reasons to 
 think it is due to it. 
 
 Neither physiologists nor chem- 
 ists state whether it requires any 
 particular kind of acid to relax the 
 blood or whether all acids have this 
 
Treatment. 57 
 
 action in common. If my attacks 
 came from lactic acid, then I as- 
 sume that all the regular catarrhal 
 cases are caused by this same acid. 
 But just whether it would be safe to 
 claim all the purely simple hay 
 fever cases are due to this same 
 acid might be a question. I am 
 strongly inclined to the belief that 
 this acid is at the bottom of the 
 trouble, perhaps combined with 
 some other already in the blood or 
 generated from lack of oxygen at 
 that season. 
 
 If the annual sufferers, when 
 they feel the first symptoms of this 
 disease, will resort to purgative 
 medicine — and for this purpose 
 nothing acts so well as Epsom 
 salts — this will reduce the amount 
 
58 Hay Fever. 
 
 of water and acid in the glandular 
 secretions better than any other 
 remedy. The sulphate of soda or 
 phosphate of soda may take its 
 place and answer very well in some 
 cases. The latter is rather mild 
 in its action, and scarcely meets 
 the demand unless a full dose is 
 taken (an ounce or an ounce and a 
 half). The first named acts 
 quickly, will give beneficial results, 
 and if followed with the proper 
 remedy the acid will be neutralized 
 and blood contracted ; and the 
 patient will remain pretty good for 
 some time unless the weather is 
 uncommonly sultry and oppress- 
 ive. But if this disease is to be 
 prevented, the patient should be 
 given a mild preparation of iron 
 
Treatment. 59 
 
 for at least two or three months 
 previous to his attack, and continue 
 it in small doses all through the 
 season, and get his system in 
 proper condition and get the blood 
 up to its normal standard. This 
 can be accomplished if he persists 
 in the tonic and the proper remedy 
 for his bodily ailments. 
 
 The best preparation of iron I 
 have thus far discovered is Hensel's 
 physiological tonicum. I took five 
 bottles myself last season, and with 
 the proper remedy, which in my 
 case was Mercurtus cor., I got 
 through safely, although I did not 
 begin to take the tonic until after 
 the beginning of July, when I lost 
 my appetite and thought something 
 had to be done. I took about a 
 
60 Hay Fever. 
 
 teaspoonful in a tumbler of water 
 sweetened with three good tea- 
 spoonfuls of sugar, and repeated it 
 four or five times a day. My ap- 
 petite returned, I improved rapidly. 
 The remedy may be Merc, cor., 
 especially if the patient is a catar- 
 rhal subject, or this remedy in 
 alternation with Ferrum met., or 
 if he is subject to that form of 
 catarrh which affects the bone 
 tissue he may require Cal. fluor. 
 or Aurum met. If he has had 
 odor from catarrh no remedy can 
 equal the former for that condition. 
 I have found patients who can- 
 not take the tonicum in the dose 
 mentioned above, and if I am sure 
 it is iron they require I have them 
 take it in three or five drop doses 
 
Treatment. 61 
 
 in a little water, with or without 
 sugar as suits them best. I 
 have also' taken the phosphate of 
 iron, but not with any appreciable 
 results ; but have no doubt it 
 would produce good results in the 
 tall, slender, bloodless subjects. 
 Pepto inangan is a splendid prep- 
 aration of this much-needed salt, 
 and will meet the requirements in 
 a great many cases. Simple syrup 
 of wheat phosphate also contains a 
 trace of iron, and is an excellent 
 tonic and tissue builder, especially 
 for the young and growing sub- 
 jects, and a good tonic for the 
 winter or cold weather if there is 
 loss of appetite ; but in the hot 
 weather we all require the iron to 
 make up for lack of oxygen and 
 
62 Hay Fever. 
 
 to keep the blood in contraction. 
 I never prescribed for my patients 
 the size dose given on bottles, but 
 invariably reduce the amount one- 
 half or two-thirds ; then they can 
 increase as they see its necessity, 
 but very few will do so without 
 being advised. The purgatives 
 should be taken at least twice a 
 week in order to keep the amount 
 of water reduced as much as pos- 
 sible. The Epsom salts I mention 
 as the best for this purpose and 
 will not leave the patient consti- 
 pated afterwards. There is manu- 
 factured a bella-aloin and strych- 
 tablets which I have used with 
 good results frequently in place of 
 the salts. 
 
 Those who anticipate an attack 
 
Treatment. 63 
 
 should also take a hot salt bath 
 at least twice a week. This can be 
 prepared in the following manner : 
 Add two and a half or three pounds 
 of rock salt, or, if this cannot be 
 had, nse common salt, in a gallon 
 of water and allow it to come to a 
 boil ; then add this to about three 
 or four buckets of cool or previously 
 heated water ; before mixing these 
 the patient should be ready for the 
 bath, so the vapor can come di- 
 rectly in ^contact with the surface 
 of body, and as soon as the water 
 is cool enough to permit he should 
 get in and remain for fifteen to 
 twenty minutes. The underclothes 
 he intends wearing should be hung 
 in the room, so they can get as 
 much of the salt vapor as possible 
 
64 Hay Fever. 
 
 without becoming too damp. These 
 baths should be taken preferably 
 at bedtime, and the patient, after 
 drying himself lightly, can retire 
 and get a good night's rest and feel 
 much refreshed the next morning. 
 If the patients are weak, a light 
 sponge bath as hot as can be borne, 
 every other night, should suffice, 
 or if such a patient is at the sea- 
 shore he need not take a bath at 
 all, and really should not, for in- 
 haling the salt air is sufficient. No 
 person suffering with this disease 
 at the seashore should take a 
 bath oftener than once in four days 
 at most. I tried taking one every 
 other day during a short stay at 
 Cape May, and the result was I re- 
 turned home much worse after two 
 
Treatment. 65 
 
 weeks than I was before I went 
 away. While in the bath the pa- 
 tient should snuff the salt water up 
 the nose and bathe the eyes thor- 
 oughly. The salt water will cleanse 
 all the cavities and passages better 
 than anything that can be applied 
 locally ; in fact, it is the only local 
 application that I ever derived any 
 relief from, but it must be used 
 cautiously. I mean it should not 
 be used except very weak, if it is 
 to be used every day or several 
 times a day. For myself I prefer 
 to use it the same strength as for 
 bathing, and only at those times. 
 Salt water used too frequently pro- 
 duces a glossy condition on the 
 surface of the membranes, which is 
 
 not a good effect, as it prevents a 
 5 
 
66 Hay Fever. 
 
 free action of the atmosphere upon 
 those surfaces. 
 
 The pernicious habit of using 
 the various local nostrums and 
 quack mixtures locally on the del- 
 icate membrane of the nose and 
 throat cannot be too strongly con- 
 demned. For this reason, if for no 
 other, this disease comes from the 
 blood, and the cause is in that fluid 
 absolutely and can only be reached 
 by remedies acting directly on the 
 blood either as contractors, or neu- 
 tralizes, or both ; and for still an- 
 other reason, these local applica- 
 tions all to a greater or less extent 
 weaken the membranes and leave 
 them more susceptible to catarrhal 
 attacks from cold. In my own 
 case I used at first a few local 
 
Treatment. 67 
 
 washes, and always suffered worse 
 for my folly. Finally I stopped 
 everything except salt water when 
 I took my baths, or, if the nose was 
 sore, I resorted to petroleum jelly 
 or something similar. Vaseline I 
 found was too light and drying. 
 
 The habit of eating a hearty 
 meal at supper time is a sure way 
 to induce a night of suffering. 
 The patient will be oppressed and 
 stuffy and will not get relief be- 
 fore two or three o'clock A. M., and 
 this same imprudence is a strong 
 factor in bringing on the throat 
 and chest spasms. It never seemed 
 to help matters any if four or five 
 hours elapsed between the eating 
 of supper and the time I retired, 
 for the stomach acts much slower 
 
68 Hay Fever. 
 
 in hot weather than in cold ; be- 
 sides this same acidity permeates 
 the gastric juices as well as the 
 other secretions, and by diluting 
 weakens them. I found in my 
 own case that I got along much 
 better by living principally on* 
 soups, with bread and butter and 
 coffee ; such soups as cream tomato, 
 oyster, clam chowder, vegetable, 
 etc., for dinner. For supper I ate 
 bread and butter, or milk toast, or 
 boiled ^ggj with coffee. Coffee is 
 undoubtedly a great acid neutral- 
 izes I seldom drank less than 
 two medium-sized cupfuls at each 
 meal, and always felt better from 
 it. The workingman or laborer 
 will most likely require a stronger 
 diet, and requires meat, so I say to 
 
Treatment. 69 
 
 him if it is possible to do so to eat 
 pork, or for a change eat lamb or 
 mutton. Beef or veal, so far as 
 my own observation goes, simply 
 increases the cause of our trouole. 
 For this reason just as soon as the 
 flesh is deprived of life the juice of 
 the meat, or muscle juice, as we 
 call it, becomes acid. This is the 
 first chemical change that takes 
 place in all dead flesh, and the first 
 change towards putrefaction. Beef 
 containing more juice than any 
 other kind of meat of which we 
 partake, and this juice being 
 charged with acid, most undoubt- 
 edly acts as an irritant. Pork, on 
 the other hand, containing very 
 little meat juice but abundance of 
 lard oil, and this oil being com- 
 
70 Hay Fever. 
 
 posed of stearin, margarin, and 
 glycerine, and each of these in- 
 gredients being powerful absorb- 
 ents of oxygen, proves that lard 
 oil acts as a stimulant and heat 
 producer to keep the body warm, 
 and this in turn aids to keep the 
 system contracted. 
 
 Fleshy persons, as a rule, suffer 
 very little from atmospherical 
 changes compared with the lean or 
 acid individuals. Mutton contains 
 a very small amount of meat juice, 
 and is a good meat for summer. 
 Fish meat being of a dry nature is 
 probably harmless, or if it contains 
 phosphorus, as has been stated, 
 then we should eat more of it, espe- 
 cially during the summer season. 
 Poultry is quite dry, especially the 
 
Treatment. 71 
 
 white meat, and quite safe. Meats 
 of all kinds should be thoroughly 
 cooked for catarrhal or hay fever 
 patients, and in this way most of 
 the acid juice can be gotten out by 
 evaporation. The late Dr. Urie 
 advised his patients suffering with 
 consumption to eat beef prepared 
 in the following manner : First boil 
 thoroughly, then lay it in the oven 
 until it becomes perfectly dry ; 
 when this was accomplished it was 
 to be grated fine and salted to suit 
 the taste. Meat prepared in this 
 manner I found was relished and 
 seemed to nourish the weakened 
 condition of my wife's stomach 
 when suffering with consumption. 
 I also ate it myself when I had 
 hay fever, and thought it did me 
 
72 Hay Fever. 
 
 good. I mention this because some 
 hay fever patients lose their appe- 
 tite for meat in any form, and in 
 order to combat this disease the 
 sufferer must keep up his strength 
 during the hot and sultry weather. 
 Eggs, either raw or poached, are 
 very beneficial, but if they cannot 
 be taken in this manner then they 
 should be eaten soft boiled, or fried, 
 or in form of an omelet. 
 
 Among the numerous beverages 
 used to allay the thirst, which at 
 times is very pronounced on ac- 
 count of the internal fever pro- 
 duced by this disease, I found the 
 Physiological tonicum and plain 
 soda or Vichy water the best. The 
 former can be taken as directed 
 above, every two or three hours. 
 
Climate. 73 
 
 Sarsaparilla, ginger ale, or plain 
 water boiled and placed in bottles 
 and allowed to lay along side of 
 ice to cool will be found grateful. 
 Ice water should never be taken, 
 because of the local irritation it is 
 likely to produce on the surface. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 Its Effects ; Who Should Go 
 to the Seashore and Who 
 Should Seek the 
 Mountains. 
 The catarrhal plus hay fever 
 subject, because he suffers with 
 ulcerations, festering, etc., in the 
 bones and soft parts of the nose or 
 frontal sinuses, with muco-puru- 
 lent or a yellow or greenish mat- 
 tery discharge, requires the chlor- 
 
74 Hay Fever. 
 
 ides and sulphates, and these can 
 be obtained through nature at the 
 seashore, and applied more directly 
 to the blood and with better results 
 than can be obtained if taken 
 through the mouth and stomach in 
 the form of drugs. These salts, 
 while they have the power of neu- 
 tralizing the acid in the blood, and 
 through it all the other secretions, 
 thereby stopping all the sneezing 
 and other disagreeable symptoms 
 produced by hay fever, do not have 
 the power to contract this fluid. If 
 it could make a whole cure instead 
 of only creating half a one, as it 
 does, the patients who seek its 
 effects might remain well for some 
 time after returning to their homes. 
 But as it is, they only remain ap- 
 
Climate. 75 
 
 parently cured, while they are right 
 in the midst of it and getting the 
 whole influence of this over salt 
 charged atmosphere, for as soon as 
 they are a few miles away from the 
 shore the air becomes diluted, and 
 they begin to sneeze, and all their 
 old complaints return again. With 
 the simple hay fever subject it is 
 quite different. He suffers but 
 once a year ; his trouble is a purely 
 local one. His condition is per- 
 haps normal, or nearly so, up to 
 within a week or two previous to 
 the attack. His general health be- 
 ing unimpaired, but as soon as the 
 atmosphere becomes sufficiently 
 humid the stomach becomes slug- 
 gish, the bowels perhaps consti- 
 pated, and the trouble is on him 
 
76 Hay Fever. 
 
 immediately. What he requires is 
 a drier atmosphere or a little 
 more oxygen. This can be ob- 
 tained in the mountains. These 
 patients will seldom, if ever, be 
 improved at the seashore. It is not 
 chlorides nor sulphates their sys- 
 tems are crying for, but iron ; and 
 as soon as they get the necessary 
 increase of oxygen the iron is soon 
 supplied, and this in turn absorb- 
 ing more oxygen from the atmos- 
 phere quickly contracts the blood 
 back to its normal condition and 
 the cure is effected. 
 
 Now while these latter, as I 
 have stated above, will not be bene- 
 fited at the seashore, the former or 
 catarrhal cases will be relieved at 
 either place, but undoubtedly much 
 
Climate. 77 
 
 more quickly at the shore. The 
 mountain air would produce a cure 
 in the following manner : By first 
 supplying an increase of oxygen, 
 thereby generating the necessary 
 gases to produce iron, and this in 
 turn absorbing a greater amount of 
 oxygen, and by so doing it causes 
 the contraction of the blood, and by 
 contracting it renders it neutral ; 
 then as soon as this latter is ac- 
 complished all the other secretions 
 and fluids are neutralized imme- 
 diately. 
 
 As soon as the blood has received 
 its proper amount of oxygen and 
 iron to bring it up to its normal 
 standard we have pure blood. This 
 pure fluid passing through and 
 permeating every gland and tissue 
 
78 Hay Fever. 
 
 of the living body acts as a tonic, 
 a stimulant and a true disinfectant 
 to every organ and tissue, and 
 under these conditions it is simply 
 impossible for this form of disease 
 to exist. 
 
 On account of the dampness of 
 the atmosphere in this climate our 
 lung expansion on ordinary in- 
 spiration is very little more than 
 two-thirds its full capacity, or, in 
 other words, instead of being from 
 three to three and one-half inches 
 on full inspiration it seldom reaches 
 beyond two or two and one-half 
 inches. On this account our physi- 
 ologists tell us we have a certain 
 amount of residual air in our lungs 
 continually. Taking this for 
 granted, then it must follow that 
 
Climate. 79 
 
 we have more or less poisonous 
 gas in our lungs all the time, 
 which must prove to be a strong 
 predisposing factor to catarrhal 
 diseases of these and other organs. 
 On the other hand, the rarefied 
 or very dry atmosphere of Colorado 
 and some parts of Mexico and the 
 higher mountain regions acts quite 
 the opposite, the atmosphere be- 
 ing so highly charged with oxygen 
 and so dry that persons entering 
 those climates from one more damp 
 can scarcely breathe, and literally 
 gasp for their breath until the 
 lungs can be gradually forced to a 
 fuller dilatation to meet the increas- 
 ing demands of respiration. This 
 demand is brought about by the 
 blood absorbing the free oxygen so 
 
80 Hay Fever. 
 
 quickly and disseminating it 
 through the system. 
 
 As soon as an increase of oxygen 
 is given to the blood all the other 
 salts are increased, and especially 
 iron, showing that the latter salt is 
 almost wholly dependent on the 
 former, for its life in the blood 
 and the oxygen-absorbing powers 
 of the iron, together with the in- 
 creased activity in the circulation 
 of the blood, brings greater de- 
 mands for increased lung capacity 
 for the purifying of this fluid nec- 
 essary to hold it in contraction. 
 The relation of all our organs are 
 so situated physiologically that 
 each one is literally dependent on 
 the other if health is to be kept at 
 its normal status. On account of 
 
Remedies. 81 
 
 the lungs being forced to their full 
 expansion, we seldom meet per- 
 sons in the dry climates hollow or 
 weak chested, but on the contrary 
 they are full chested and walk 
 erect. 
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 On account of the cause of this 
 disease being an acid, and being 
 seated in the blood and its differ- 
 ent effects in different systems, 
 there can never be found a specific 
 for this ailment. While I am quite 
 positive the remedy that will break 
 up the attack will almost invariably 
 be found among the minerals, still 
 no one mineral remedy will ever 
 be sufficient to cure every case. I 
 also consider the question of 
 
82 Hay Fever. 
 
 potency in the treatment of this 
 disease a very important one. 
 Each time the disease was broken 
 np in my own case it was accom- 
 plished with the medium or higher 
 attenuations. The first attack was 
 with Aurum met. 30th dilution. Sec- 
 ond time with Kali sulph. 5 m. The 
 last season I suffered I took Merc. 
 cor. I2x, and last summer and this 
 winter I have taken it in the 
 thirtieth dilution. I have taken it 
 this winter in the third trituration 
 with no results ; then I got it in 
 the sixth dilution and took it for a 
 couple of days, adding ten drops 
 to a tumbler two-thirds full of 
 water; dose, a small swallow every 
 half hour when I was in the office, 
 
Remedies. 83 
 
 but this did not give anything like 
 the results the thirtieth did. 
 
 Here is something I wish to 
 mention in regard to the action of 
 Merc. cor. on acids. Before Christ- 
 mas of this year I was troubled a 
 great deal with cankers and sore- 
 ness and slight burning of the 
 tongue. It struck me that if I 
 would eat a certain amount of 
 sugar every day that it might 
 cure the trouble, so I purchased 
 some good candy and began to eat 
 a small quantity two or three times 
 a day. The result began to show 
 itself the next day, for the trouble 
 lessened and in three days was all 
 gone, but the candy was not ; and 
 when it did give out I purchased 
 more and continued to eat, and I 
 
84 Hay Fever. 
 
 am sure I increased the amount I 
 ate each day, but it was not very 
 many days before the trouble came 
 back again. My tongue began to 
 burn and the right side, about one 
 inch from the end, got quite sore. 
 I stopped the candy and took two 
 or three doses of Merc. cor. thirtieth 
 dilution, when it all passed away. 
 Well, I concluded I had proved the 
 sugar, but was not fully satisfied, 
 so next day I ate a little more 
 candy and immediately the burn- 
 ing returned, and with it the sore- 
 ness again. I took the same 
 remedy with the same results. 
 The third day I tried the candy 
 again and the symptoms returned 
 as before, so I waited a couple of 
 hours to see if it would grow worse ; 
 
Remedies. 85 
 
 and I was not disappointed, for my 
 tongue got real sore and the burn- 
 ing increased, with the results that 
 I had to take my Merc. cor. all the 
 next day, when I was in the office, 
 before I got very much relief. 
 This justifies me in thinking this 
 remedy an extraordinary one for 
 the hyperacidity of gastric juices 
 and saliva so often met with in the 
 catarrhal cases, and in children 
 after eating to excess of candy. 
 The remedies mentioned here, with 
 their several symptoms, are the 
 ones I have used with best results 
 in my own and other cases. In 
 my estimation, Merc. cor. stands in 
 the same relation to the catarrhal 
 plus hay fever cases as Arsenicum 
 tod. does to the simple hay fever 
 
86 Hay Fever. 
 
 ones. The remedies will be given 
 as their importance is considered. 
 Mercurius cor. — Nose stuffy ; 
 discharge tough, sticky ; posterior 
 nares stopped up and also stuffy 
 at bridge of nose. At times it will 
 be perfectly closed, but there will 
 be a clear, bland, warm, watery dis- 
 charge. This may be acrid, irri- 
 tating the inner nose and produc- 
 ing an inclination to sneeze or 
 violent sneezing. The complexion 
 becomes sallow or dirty. Ophthal- 
 mia, with acrid, smarting, irritat- 
 ing watery discharge, mixed with 
 yellow, irritating, acrid mucus ; 
 edges of lids get crusty, become 
 glued together at night. Discharge 
 from the nose may be yellow, 
 creamy matter, golden yellow color, 
 
Remedies. 87 
 
 greenish, slimy, acrid, biting the 
 tongue and lips if hawked from 
 the throat; very often when the 
 mucus is coughed up there will be 
 present a distinct brassy odor from 
 the throat, and the mucus will 
 have a decided metallic taste. The 
 saliva is very acrid; at times it will 
 bite and smart the tongue and lips. 
 At times the tongue w T ill burn. 
 The saliva, when very acrid, if 
 ejected from the mouth, will sepa- 
 rate in a spray, but when there is 
 no acidity it will hold together. 
 The finger nails turn gray or yel- 
 low and have a dead look, and are 
 very brittle and break easily {Kalz 
 card.). 
 
 Dyspnoea so great patient can 
 scarcely speak. If at these times 
 
88 Hay Fever. 
 
 the patient opens his mouth to 
 utter a word, and the cool air 
 touches the larynx, spasm of this 
 organ and smaller bronchial tubes 
 threatens immediately {Kali card.). 
 Strings of mucus form from the 
 inner to the outer canthus of the 
 eyes, which is very acrid and irri- 
 tates the balls, causing terrible 
 annoyance until removed. Starts 
 suddenly on falling asleep. Con- 
 siderable thirst at times. I got 
 the best results from this remedy 
 when I took it in the twelfth di- 
 lution, about fifteen or twenty drops 
 in a tumblerful of water ; dose, a 
 small swallow every half hour. 
 This remedy being a combination 
 of Sodium chloride, Sulphuric acid 
 and Mercury, and these each be- 
 
Remedies. 89 
 
 ing acid neutralizers when given 
 in minute doses, I think justifies 
 me in terming it the greatest acid 
 neutralizer we possess when given 
 in the twelfth to thirtieth dilution 
 for catarrh of the head accompany- 
 ing hay fever. 
 
 Kali carb. — Sense of smell di- 
 minished ; catarrh of nose, with 
 golden yellow or green discharge ; 
 nose always closed while indoors 
 and almost always open as soon as 
 patient goes in open air, only to 
 close again if he returns indoors ; 
 patient either hawks from throat 
 or blows from nose small pieces of 
 scabs of golden yellow or rust color, 
 which are very strong or acrid tast- 
 ing, or else drops of dirty, ichorous 
 mucus, which is very irritating 
 
90 Hay Fever. 
 
 when hawked from the throat or 
 blown from the nose ; this is some- 
 times mattery in appearance. As 
 long as this condition is present 
 there is a liability of spasms at 
 night, and the same danger is 
 present dnring the daytime, bnt 
 not to the same extent, for the 
 sufferer can keep it from collecting 
 and being in direct contact with 
 the membranes for any great 
 length of time. Spasm of larynx 
 and bronchioles about 2 A. M., 
 beginning with cough ; then feet 
 grow cold and clammy, followed by 
 shortness of breath and wheezing ; 
 cough more violent, with expec- 
 toration of mouthful s of frothy, 
 slimy, ropy and greenish mucus. 
 This remedy, in alternation with 
 
Remedies. 91 
 
 the preceding one, will prevent 
 these attacks. Patient has to 
 breathe with mouth closed and 
 chin on the chest, and breathe 
 very gently ; eyes sore in the cor- 
 ners ; lids swollen in the morning; 
 lachrymation ; photophobia worse 
 from sunlight or artificial light ; 
 eyes weak; hawks up scabs from 
 the throat; strangles when at- 
 tempting to drink even a swallow 
 of water ; ears closed, with crack- 
 ing first in one and then in the 
 other; spasmodic sneezing, as 
 often as twenty times without in- 
 termission ; dryness in the throat, 
 with thirst; feels as if cannot 
 breathe deep enough; wheezing 
 after slight cough ; very stuffy all 
 day and evening, and fear of spasm ; 
 
92 Hay Fever. 
 
 nose closed at night. On account 
 of the acid destroying the oil in 
 the sebaceous gland of the scalp 
 the hair loses its lustre and soft- 
 ness, becomes dry and dies, then it 
 breaks off and falls. This remedy, 
 continued in the sixth dilution or 
 higher, will correct this trouble. 
 
 Natrum carb. — Nose stopped 
 worse at night ; loss of smell and 
 taste ; sneezing worse at night, 
 with watery discharge ; sneezing 
 worse when nose is stopped up, 
 but without relief; after sneezing 
 the nose feels very stuify; dis- 
 charge is yellow or green, but not 
 so irritating as in the preceding 
 remedy, but is hawked up from 
 the throat more freely in the morn- 
 ing, and is not so tough and 
 
Remedies. 93 
 
 seldom, if ever, in lumps or scabs, 
 except when blown from the nose, 
 which is sometimes sore at the 
 bridge; sensation of down or 
 feathers before the eyes and on 
 the lashes, which cannot be wiped 
 away ; eyes very dim, with stitch- 
 ing pain in them, or as if very fine 
 needles were piercing through 
 them from within outward ; sixth 
 dilution. 
 
 Calcarea phos. — If the attack be- 
 gins with heat and sweating of 
 back of head and neck or general 
 night sweats ; sensation of feathers 
 or down on eyelashes, which can 
 be wiped away, but will return 
 again; lashes feel as if crossed; 
 eyeballs feel hot and ache; nasal 
 symptoms are generally better in 
 
94 Hay Fever. 
 
 a warm room ; bowels are generally 
 constipated, with rumbling of gas 
 in them and passing of flatulence 
 and urging to stool from pressure 
 on rectum; haemorrhoids, with 
 spasmodic contraction of sphincter 
 ani, worse at 12 o'clock; hawks 
 tough, white mucus from the 
 throat ; discharge from nose is gen- 
 erally thick and yellow, but not 
 irritating. This remedy will prove 
 curative, used mostly in twelfth 
 dilution. 
 
 Glonozne. — In the beginning, 
 when there is a rush of blood to 
 the brain, with great heat of the 
 head, with sweating day and night 
 and sneezing, as if taking fresh 
 colds all the time ; if there is any 
 cough present it jars and hurts the 
 
Remedies. 95 
 
 head ; the eye symptoms are similar 
 to the preceding remedy ; with the 
 sneezing there is always a watery, 
 non-irritating discharge ; the ears 
 feel fnll and almost closed ; sensa- 
 tion in the head as if every- 
 thing was jammed together. This 
 remedy, given in the twelfth dilu- 
 tion, with the above symptom, will 
 never fail to give relief and prevent 
 a great deal of suffering that no 
 other remedy I know of can do. I 
 have repeated the dose every fif- 
 teen minutes when the cough was 
 troublesome and caused headache 
 from the concussion. It will al- 
 most always give good results in 
 the beginning of catarrhal cold at 
 any season of the year. Headache 
 from cough mostly in back of head ; 
 
96 Hay Fever. 
 
 headache in front of head; eyes 
 suffused and watery. 
 
 Magnesia phos. — This is un- 
 doubtedly the best remedy we pos- 
 sess at the present time to prevent 
 threatening spasms from matur- 
 ing, or to relax the same when it 
 has already set in, whether these 
 occur during the daytime or at 
 night in bed. If the weather has 
 been very sultry during the day 
 and the patient has been very 
 stuffy and oppressed, with short, 
 anxious breathing, he can safely 
 predict a spasm during the night, 
 even though he has managed to 
 escape one during the day. Under 
 these conditions he should take 
 this remedy every hour during the 
 day, dry, and during the evening 
 
Remedies. 97 
 
 he should take from six to twelve 
 doses in hot water, prepared in the 
 following manner : Fill a pint 
 pitcher full of water as hot as he 
 can drink ; add to this fifteen or 
 twenty drops of the sixth, twelfth 
 or twentieth dilution — the latter 
 two strengths are the ones I have 
 used oftenest, and with just as 
 rapid and good results. I am posi- 
 tive I have prevented spasms at 
 night in a number of instances in 
 my own case by taking Kali carb. 
 and Merc. cor. every half hour or 
 hour, alternately during the day 
 and the former in the evening 
 until bedtime, as mentioned above ; 
 dose, a swallow every fifteen min- 
 utes or half hour. If spasm de- 
 velops during the night, have some 
 
98 Hay Fever. 
 
 of the remedy prepared as above 
 and take a couple of swallows as liot 
 as lie can, at first as often as every 
 ten minutes, and as, he feels better 
 gradually lengthen interval to 
 twenty minutes or a half hour. 
 As soon as belching begins the pa- 
 tient can feel assured that perma- 
 nent relief for the time is assured. 
 Buzzing in the ears, with dulness 
 of hearing ; loss of smell ; smart- 
 ing in the nose ; dropping of mucus 
 from posterior nares into the 
 throat ; sensation of choking or 
 feeling of suffocation in throat; 
 spasm of glottis ; shooting or sting- 
 ing pains in the head, shifting 
 from one place to another, with 
 sparks before the eyes and dull 
 vision ; eyelids twitch ; eyes sensi- 
 
Remedies. 99 
 
 tive to light. There may also be 
 constipation. All the symptoms 
 of this remedy are better or im- 
 proved from warmth or hot appli- 
 cations ; therefore it shonld always 
 be taken in hot water whenever 
 possible. 
 
 Arsenicum tod. — E yes itch, 
 smart and bnrn ; lids are red and 
 feel dry ; at times the redness ex- 
 tends far down nnder the eyes and 
 on the cheeks, and looks as if 
 patient had been rubbing them or 
 as after crying. The more severe 
 the burning the better this remedy 
 is indicated. Eyes weak, with feel- 
 ing as if lachrymation would set 
 in ; discharge most always thin, 
 watery, hot, acrid and burning, 
 worse when out of doors ; violent 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
100 Hay Fever. 
 
 attack of sneezing, with soreness 
 of the nose, which at times gets 
 very red and swollen ; eyelids be- 
 come cedematous ; face pale, sal- 
 low or earthy color ; sclerotica yel- 
 lowish ; itching and smarting of 
 the eyes ; spasms at night. 
 
 Apis mel. — Burning, stinging, 
 smarting or fine shooting pains in 
 the eyes, which may be congested, 
 or the lids may be oedematons. 
 While this remedy will invariably 
 relieve all the above symptoms in 
 a few seconds when taken in the 
 one-thonsandth dilution, I never 
 received any further improvement 
 from its continued use It is the 
 only remedy I have found that 
 will stop the fine pin and needle 
 pains, and it always acts instantly. 
 
Remedies. 101 
 
 Kali sul. — Yellow or green, 
 slimy, watery discharge from nose, 
 hawking same from throat; coughs 
 up slimy mucus from throat, but 
 it slips down again before it can be 
 expectorated ; head feels as if it 
 were full of drain pipes and every 
 one was dripping with this yellow, 
 slimy, juicy water. This same 
 slimy or juicy water can be 
 squeezed from the nose by press- 
 ing that organ between the thumb 
 and forefinger from the bridge 
 downwards, and in appearance 
 looks like the juice squeezed from 
 a piece of beef on a soft, muggy 
 wet or rainy morning, when we 
 say the meat looks sick ; nose ob- 
 structed ; dry catarrh ; dryness of 
 the lips — they become crusty and 
 
102 Hay Fever. 
 
 scale off ; burning in the mouth, 
 which sometimes is slimy ; patient 
 is always better in the open or 
 cool air ; scalp full of dandruff, 
 which falls profusely from brush- 
 ing the hair ; yellow or greenish, 
 slimy, watery discharge from the 
 eyes, or it may be very mattery 
 and glue the lids together during 
 the night ; there may be thirst and 
 burning in the stomach, or in the 
 stomach and bowels. I have seen 
 the latter symptoms verified on 
 numerous occasions when this rem- 
 edy was indicated ; in fact, it is a 
 true keynote to its indication. I 
 use it in the thirtieth and higher 
 dilutions. 
 
 Nux vomica. — This is a good 
 remedy for hay fever when there 
 
Remedies. 103 
 
 is gastric trouble complicated with 
 constipation, when the patient feels 
 very stuffy after meals ; the nose 
 is stopped up ; after supper he 
 feels generally stuffed full ; blows 
 watery or thick mucus like the 
 white of egg from the nose ; feels 
 weak in the knees ; pain in the 
 eyes or dizzy feeling in the head ; 
 tongue coated, with bitter taste or 
 sticky feeling in the mouth. Head- 
 ache worse from thinking. 
 
 Three years ago a Mr. H. came 
 to my office one evening so smoth- 
 ered he could scarcely answer my 
 questions. I gave him Kali carb. 
 and Mag.phos. in alternation every 
 hour, except at night. He was to 
 take the latter in hot water. He 
 got along all right while the med- 
 
104 Hay Fever. 
 
 icine lasted ; then the spasms re- 
 turned at night. He got another 
 prescription and took it with the 
 same results. After the season 
 was over he stopped coming for 
 medicine and I saw very little of 
 him until the next August, when 
 he was again attacked, but re- 
 mained away, trying first one 
 remedy and then another that his 
 friends suggested, until finally I 
 was sent for one morning at two 
 A. m. to come as soon as possible, 
 for he was smothering to death. I 
 found him sitting on a chair w T ith 
 nothing on except his shirt and 
 pants, with his bare feet on the 
 bare floor and the room quite cold. 
 I had his feet dressed, then began 
 giving him Magnesia phos. twelfth, 
 
Remedies. 105 
 
 in hot water, every five minutes, 
 and in fifteen minutes lie began to 
 be relieved. Then I told him that 
 if he would continue to take med- 
 icine and get his stomach and 
 bowels corrected I felt sure he 
 could be cured, as I found he was 
 very costive at that time and had 
 been for several weeks. I warned 
 him against eating heavy suppers. 
 He had no more severe attacks 
 that season, and got over the dis- 
 ease sooner than he had in pre- 
 vious years. During 1900 he took 
 medicine occasionally for his stom- 
 ach and bowels, and was feeling 
 pretty well generally most of the 
 time. One day during hay fever 
 season I met him, and asked how 
 he was feeling ; his answer was, 
 
106 Hay Fever. 
 
 " Tip top." " Well," I said, " you 
 had better take a little preventa- 
 tive treatment or you may be 
 knocked out one of these days ;" 
 but he said, " I am not going to 
 have it this year for I am now 
 three weeks over my time, and my 
 bowels are regular, my stomach is 
 good, and this is the first season in 
 twenty years that I have gone over 
 my regular time for the attack." 
 About ten days after this, about 
 nine o'clock in the evening, I was 
 sent for to come as soon as possi- 
 ble, as father was suffering very 
 much. I found him coughing as on 
 previous occasions, with tears 
 streaming down his cheeks, pain 
 in the throat and chest, with super- 
 ficial breathing which was quite 
 
Remedies. 107 
 
 labored; in fact, a real picture of 
 distress. The same remedy was 
 given with immediate relief. On 
 questioning I learned that his 
 bowels had been constipated for 
 some time, and that he had eaten a 
 hearty supper about five o'clock, 
 which had undoubtedly occasioned 
 this attack. Before departing I 
 left orders for him to call or send 
 to my office the next morning and 
 get a prescription and prevent fur- 
 ther trouble. I gave him Magnesia 
 -phos. twelfth, and Nux vomica 
 third on pellets ; dose every two 
 hours alternately. He never had 
 another spasm, the whole trouble 
 breaking up with this one attack. 
 
 This fully justifies the assump- 
 tion that not only the spasms but 
 
108 Hay Fever. 
 
 the whole malady can be superin- 
 duced through inactivity of the 
 bowels and stomach in those who 
 annually suffer from its attacks. 
 One of my greatest difficulties in 
 my own case is to keep my bowels 
 regular, for as soon as they become 
 at all sluggish my head and eyes 
 grow worse. So I say again to the 
 sufferer, keep the stomach and 
 bowels acting, but don't purge the 
 latter to excess. 
 
 Ferrum tod. and Ferrum sul. — 
 Iron, being the greatest absorbent 
 of oxygen of any chemical salt 
 contained in the blood and the 
 greatest blood nutrient and con- 
 tractor, and the oxygen being at 
 the same time the life of the iron, 
 it is easy to understand why this 
 
Remedies. 109 
 
 mineral salt should be an indis- 
 pensable remedy in the treatment 
 of this disease in both classes. 
 The former is especially adapted 
 to the pure hay fever cases, but 
 either preparation might be called 
 for in the catarrhal form, but in 
 my opinion they should not be 
 given lower than the two-hundredth 
 dilution. 
 
 I took the latter in the thirtieth 
 dilution for a catarrhal cold last 
 January with the following symp- 
 toms : Blowing yellow-greenish 
 mucus from the nose and coughing 
 up the same from my throat, with 
 sneezing ; mucus was quite slimy, 
 but not acrid. It gave me relief, 
 but before I got well I took a fresh 
 cold and was forced to take another 
 
110 Hay Fever. 
 
 remedy. The former I have never 
 used, but from what we know of 
 those remedies when given singly 
 I feel it commends itself to us at 
 once as a sovereign remedy in this 
 disease. I have not been able to 
 find any proving of this drug, but 
 will try and get clinical evidence 
 the coming season. 
 
 Arsenicum alb. — This remedy I 
 have taken and given on numerous 
 occasions, and always with good 
 results. The indications calling 
 for its employment are so similar 
 to those calling for the Arsenicum 
 tod. that it is not necessary to 
 enumerate them here. 
 
 During the first year I practiced 
 in Maryland a lady came to me, 
 suffering in August, to find out 
 
Remedies. Ill 
 
 what ailed her and to get medicine 
 for the tronble. It was her first 
 attack and she had it to perfection. 
 She said she was sneezing all the 
 time ; her nose was sore from 
 wiping ; her eyes were itching 
 and burning and almost setting 
 her wild; her head was aching; 
 some of the time she could scarcely 
 breathe, and at night she had 
 spasms and was afraid she would 
 die unless she got relief immedi- 
 ately. I told her she had hay 
 fever and could keep me company, 
 but I felt sure I could cure her. 
 I gave her Arsenicum, two-hun- 
 dredth dilution, and Kali carb., the 
 sixth, to be put in water ; dose, a 
 teaspoonful every half hour in 
 alternation. This broke the dis- 
 
112 Hay Fever. 
 
 ease completely, but I had her 
 continue treatment for catarrh of 
 the head and nose until the follow- 
 ing Christmas. The following 
 two seasons I practiced there she 
 missed the attacks. This lady 
 was the w 7 ife of a well-to-do farmer 
 and had all the advantages of fresh 
 air, pure water, etc., and hers, like 
 my own and numberless other 
 cases, was simply as I have stated 
 before, an aggravated condition of 
 a certain form of catarrh due to 
 oppressiveness of the atmosphere 
 from lack of oxygen at that par- 
 ticular season of the year. 
 
 There are other remedies which 
 may be called for in this disease, 
 which I have found to be palliative 
 but never curative in my experi- 
 
Remedies. 113 
 
 ence. Those are Sanguinaria, 
 
 Cepa, Euphrasia, Belladonna, 
 
 Pulsatilla, Mercurius biniod., and 
 
 Merc, vivus. There is no doubt 
 
 that in a great number of the 
 
 cases suffering with this disease 
 
 there is a dyscrasia or disease that 
 
 has been suppressed at some 
 
 previous period, or one that had 
 
 never been brought to the surface, 
 
 and in order to find the cause of 
 
 these attacks in some cases it will 
 
 be necessary to look below the 
 
 surface, and the deeper look, in my 
 
 opinion, should be in the blood. 
 
 I found that exercise sufficiently 
 
 violent to produce copious sweating 
 
 was always followed by pronounced 
 
 and general relief for some time 
 
 of all the irritating symptoms, but 
 8 
 
114 Hay Fever. 
 
 exercising to the point of exhaus- 
 tion or wasting the strength must 
 be prevented, for this is a disease in 
 which the sufferer requires all the 
 bodily force he can get to combat 
 it. 
 
 The result of free sweating 
 causes a general unloading from 
 the blood, glands and membranes 
 of a super-abundance of acid and 
 water, hence the relief. 
 
 There are other remedies which 
 I have used for the catarrhal 
 troubles in my own and other 
 cases, but these with their indica- 
 tions will be found in part second 
 of this book. 
 
PART II. 
 
 CATARRH OF THE HEAD 
 AND NOSE. 
 
 ^ I ^HIS disease constitutes one of 
 -1- the most frequent and con- 
 stant ailments that the phy- 
 sician is called upon to treat in his 
 office work. It is also the forerun- 
 ner of about one-half of all the 
 cases of hay fever found in this 
 climate. Thus it will be seen that 
 all that has been said regarding 
 that disease and its cause, effects 
 and treatment applies here. 
 
 Let it be first understood that 
 the cause is an acid generated in 
 
116 Say Fever. 
 
 the blood from a lack of proper 
 clothing or nourishment, getting 
 wet, from exposure, or from any- 
 other ailment which would lower 
 the vitality or reduce the necessary 
 amount of animal heat to the sys- 
 tem. Once this acid is formed in 
 the blood in a weakened system it 
 is very difficult to get it back 
 again to its normal condition, one 
 attack always predisposing to an- 
 other. 
 
 This disease, as every physician 
 knows, is more prevalent in the 
 fall and winter months than dur- 
 ing the remainder of the year, 
 showing that cold and dampness 
 are necessary to its production. A 
 great many persons who suffer 
 with this disease have it to a 
 
Catarrh of the Head and Nose. 117 
 
 greater or less extent the whole 
 year round, getting fresh attacks 
 with every change of the weather 
 from dry to wet, and one or more 
 sneezes, according as the change is 
 slight or marked, is the signal 
 that an atmospherical change is 
 taking place. 
 
 The blood of those who suffer 
 with this disease is always deficient 
 in one of those mineral salts which 
 produces heat and nourishment to 
 that fluid. The beginning of a 
 catarrhal cold produces about the 
 same symptoms in all persons, ex- 
 cept that the degree of severity 
 varies according to the previous 
 state of the patient's health. The 
 attack always begins with one or 
 more sneezes, accompanied with 
 
118 Hay Fever. 
 
 more or less chilliness and a bland, 
 acrid or burning watery discharge 
 from the nose. The eyes may be- 
 come suffused and burn or itch. 
 The head sometimes feels light, or 
 there is a peculiar sick, weak feel- 
 ing, or as if full of open pores and 
 they were all dripping water. These 
 latter symptoms are taken from my 
 own case. I have always taken my 
 worst catarrhal colds while in the 
 house and feeling warm and com- 
 fortable. Suddenly I would begin 
 to sneeze. I always knew then 
 that there was an atmospherical 
 change occurring, and with the 
 sneezing all the other symptoms I 
 have enumerated above would set 
 in. I would get a more or less 
 severe bruised pain in the left 
 
Catarrh of the Head and Nose. 119 
 
 cheek, sometimes accompanied by 
 a dull headache. This condition, 
 unless stopped at once, would go 
 to an abscess and the matter would 
 be discharged through the nose. 
 At other times there would be a 
 yellow or yellowish green, slimy 
 mucous discharge, which would 
 gradually thicken and drop back 
 during the night through the 
 posterior nares into the throat, 
 forming thick scabs to be hawked 
 up and spat out or swallowed. 
 This same condition takes place in 
 the nose and it comes out in lumps 
 or scabs. At other times it dries 
 in the nose like glue and cannot 
 be blown out at all. Often this 
 mucous, when spat out from the 
 throat, if it struck against the side 
 
120 Hay Fever. 
 
 of a vessel or other hard substance, 
 would dry in a thin scale and in 
 appearance resembled very closely 
 ordinary glue. Sometimes the 
 mucus is very irritating, and if the 
 frontal sinuses are very much af- 
 fected there will be an exudation 
 and secretion of mucus or matter 
 into the eyes. These organs will 
 become congested, itch and burn ; 
 the throat will get red, inflamed, 
 and sore, with a raw or scraped 
 feeling every time the patient swal- 
 lows. I have also had spasms and 
 all the other symptoms - of a 
 genuine attack of hay fever with 
 a winter cold. All there was lack- 
 ing to make it complete was a de- 
 crease of oxygen and resultant op- 
 pressiveness. Of course this condi- 
 
Treatment. 121 
 
 tion would only last for one night, 
 then my system, with the assistance 
 of the oxygen in the atmosphere, 
 would react and I would improve. 
 On several occasions I have 
 noticed an odor to the discharge, 
 but this only occurred through 
 neglect to begin treatment in time, 
 and was always quickly corrected. 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 This disease should never be 
 treated locally unless it consists of 
 non-irritants, such as cosmoline, 
 petroleum jelly, etc. All the so- 
 called catarrhal lotions, douches, 
 etc., are decidedly worse than noth- 
 ing, for they all leave a more or 
 less weakened condition of the del- 
 
122 Hay Fever. 
 
 icate parts which they come in 
 contact with, and leave them more 
 susceptible to the slightest change 
 of the weather, and at the same 
 time more easily irritated by street 
 dust or any irritating substances 
 which might be brought in contact 
 with the membranes of these parts 
 through the act of breathing. 
 
 Besides all this, the astringent 
 washes recommended for this dis- 
 ease can never produce a perma- 
 nent cure except in rare instances, 
 and then only by it happening to 
 be the indicated remedy and by a 
 sufficient amount of it being ab- 
 sorbed and carried into the blood 
 to neutralize the acid present, and 
 this, I think, seldom occurs. 
 
 All that has been said regarding 
 
Treatment. 123 
 
 the treatment locally and with 
 medicine, and the diet, in hay 
 fever is just as good here, so those 
 remedies and their indications can 
 be studied under that disease, and 
 we will here continue with others 
 not given there. 
 
 Argentum nit. — Chilliness, with 
 sneezing ; itching of the nose ; 
 headache on the top of the head, 
 with pressure or pain on left side 
 of the head ; sense of smell dimin- 
 ished, with discharge of blood and 
 matter from nose ; hearing dull, 
 with ringing in the ears ; ulcers in 
 the nose ; later yellow crusts form ; 
 nose stopped at night, with itch- 
 ing. Eyes : red granulations on 
 lids, which are swollen ; mem- 
 branes congested, inflamed and 
 
124 Hay Fever. 
 
 discharging yellow matter; oedema 
 of lids, which feel hot and dry, or 
 dry and crusty. Also in hay fever 
 all eye symptoms are worse from 
 light or moving the ball. 
 
 Aurum. — This remedy is sel- 
 dom given or required unless the 
 bones are affected, and if this con- 
 dition is present there will be more 
 or less odor, depending on the ex- 
 tent of the former. Discharge 
 may be thick, like boiled starch or 
 white of egg^ or it may be bloody 
 corruption, or green or yellow 
 matter or mucus. The bones of 
 the nose are generally sore, with 
 ulcers high up in nose or frontal 
 bones, or at the bridge ; mucus 
 dries, forming hard scabs, which 
 stop the nostrils and force patients 
 
Treatment. 125 
 
 to breathe through the mouth ; 
 sense of smell completely lost ; 
 very foul-tasting mucus is hawked 
 from throat in the morning; nose, 
 inside, and the throat burns, 
 smarts and feels raw; spasm of 
 larynx at night ; discharges are 
 mostly all of an irritating, acrid 
 nature. All these symptoms are 
 worse from cold air. Bars : wax 
 becomes dry, with buzzing in the 
 ears and difficult hearing ; may be 
 an offensive otorrhoea. Eyes glued 
 up in morning, with itching, sting- 
 ing and pricking {Apis) ; must rub 
 them for relief ; headache in fore- 
 head and temples, with bruised 
 sensation in the bones, which are 
 sore to the touch {Puis.). Nearly 
 all taken from my own case. This 
 
126 Hay Fever. 
 
 remedy should never be given 
 lower than thirtieth dilution. 
 
 Belladonna. — In the beginning 
 of an acute attack,, when there is 
 spasmodic sneezing, with headache, 
 ringing in the ears, redness of the 
 face, nose stopped or a burning, 
 watery discharge, shooting pains 
 in the head, or only in right side 
 and in the ear — third dilution. 
 Glonoine far exceeds this remedy 
 for apparently the same symptoms 
 or without the ringing in the ears. 
 A plan I follow, if I am not sure 
 of its indications, is to give the 
 patient a dose of the sixth or 
 twelfth dilution on the tongue and 
 wait a moment for results ; if it does 
 not cause headache I prescribe it, 
 for if not indicated it will produce 
 
Treatment. 127 
 
 this symptom in half a minute or 
 less time after reaching the 
 stomach. 
 
 Bryonia. — Catarrh of frontal 
 sinuses, with discharge of greenish- 
 yellow mucus, which sometimes is 
 quite slimy ; there is most always 
 present a dull or heavy headache 
 in front or back of head; there 
 may or may not be thirst ; patient 
 is apt to feel too full after eating, 
 or there may be heaviness in chest 
 and stomach and constipation ; 
 may be considerable sneezing or 
 headache over left eye only, or ex- 
 tending to occiput ; headache com- 
 ing on before patient gets out of 
 bed in the morning. Have always 
 given it and taken it myself in 
 second or third dilution. 
 
128 Hay Fever. 
 
 Calcarea carb. — This remedy, 
 while perhaps more adapted to 
 chronic cases, is very often called 
 for in acute attacks. The dis- 
 charge may be yellow or greenish- 
 yellow or pus-like ; nostrils may 
 be sore or ulcerated or may be dry, 
 with sneezing and foul smell be- 
 fore the nose ; may be cracking in 
 the ears when chewing ; eyes glued 
 up at night, with itching and sting- 
 ing pains ; profuse sweating of the 
 back of the head at night, wetting 
 the pillow ; headache in right side 
 of occiput, which may extend up- 
 wards to top of head ; aching which 
 seems to be in the bone just in 
 front of left temple, with sweating 
 of the feet and a cold, watery feel- 
 ing between the toes. Generally 
 
Treatment. 129 
 
 prescribe this remedy in thirtieth 
 dilution. Symptoms mostly taken 
 from my own case. A continual 
 and persistent sensation as if a hat 
 or cap was on my head, which . 
 often compelled me to feel for it 
 when I was positive my head was 
 bare. 
 
 Calcarea fluor. — This is un- 
 doubtedly the best remedy we 
 possess for catarrhal affections of 
 the nasal and frontal bones, with 
 fetid discharges or for necrosis 
 with foul odor of dead bone. 
 Catarrh of the head and nose, with 
 stuffy feeling ; thick yellow or 
 greenish-yellow discharge, with 
 sickening odor, which is noticed 
 by the patient himself ; discharge 
 is sometimes in yellow, irregular 
 
130 Hay Fever. 
 
 shaped lumps, or dryness of the 
 nose or osseous growths in nose ; 
 hawks small lumps about the size 
 of a small pea from throat ; these 
 at times are very acrid, and in my 
 own case have caused me to be 
 seriously threatened with spasm 
 of the larynx when present during 
 my summer attacks ; constipation 
 is a prominent symptom. Further 
 on I will give a detailed account of 
 the action of this remedy in an 
 extreme case of necrosis of nasal 
 bone, with very offensive odor. 
 Have never used it lower than 
 thirtieth dilution. 
 
 Graphite. — This constitutes one 
 of our very best remedies for catar- 
 rhal troubles of the nose, ears and 
 eyes when given in twelfth dilu- 
 
Treatment, 131 
 
 tion or higher. Its most promi- 
 nent keynotes are inflammations 
 around the finger-nails, and when 
 cuts or sores on any part of the 
 body or extremities heal too slowly 
 or maturate. It has soreness of 
 nostrils or one side of nose, as if 
 erysipelas would set in ; dry scabs 
 in nose or ulcers and bleeding ; 
 sense of smell dulled ; foul smell- 
 ing discharges, which are tough or 
 may be thick yellow mucus. The 
 discharge is sometimes very irritat- 
 ing and causes violent, red, rash- 
 like appearance around the nose or 
 wherever it comes much in contact 
 with other parts of face from con- 
 stant wiping. This same condi- 
 tion is produced around the eyes 
 and on the cheeks from the irritat- 
 
132 Hay Fever. 
 
 ing acrid discharge of slimy mucus 
 from these organs ; styes in per- 
 sons who have hay fever ; eyelids 
 feel too dry, crusty or glued up in 
 the morning ; lids swollen in the 
 morning or puffed up ; stitching 
 pains, with itching and burning ; 
 will prevent wild hairs, in thirtieth 
 dilution ; flickering before the 
 eyes ; feel tired and ache. Ears : 
 there is ringing or roaring sounds, 
 with dry, hard, dark wax, either in 
 scales or lumps, which when re- 
 moved often leave a soreness and 
 bleeding ; drum looks too dry and 
 pale ; chaffing of the inside of the 
 ear ; patient hears better when he 
 has cotton in the ears ; ears too 
 open; discharge of greenish-yel- 
 low or gray foul-smelling matter ; 
 
Treatment. 133 
 
 itching in external canal through 
 Eustachian tube and into the 
 throat; dryness of nose, ears and 
 eyes, with burning of the latter and 
 pain from bright light ; bowels 
 costive ; hemorrhoids worse at 
 noon, with violent burning and 
 constriction of sphincter ani mus- 
 cle. 
 
 Hydrastis. — Sneezing, with dull, 
 heavy headache in forehead ; burn- 
 ing in the nose, with watery dis- 
 charge, worse in open air ; sneez- 
 ing, with headache ; air feels cold 
 in the nose ; thick, yellow, tough 
 nasal discharge ; post nasal ca- 
 tarrh, and when there is hawking 
 of tough, stringy mucus from the 
 throat ; catarrh of oesophagus and 
 
134 Hay Fever. 
 
 stomach, with, white, tenacious, 
 ropy mucus. Third dilution. 
 
 Kali bichromicum. — The dis- 
 charge is always ropy or stringy, 
 yellow or clear mucus resembling 
 the white of egg } but not so heavy, 
 running down from the nose, mak- 
 ing the lip sore. Tough, yellow 
 or white, sticky lumps are hawked 
 up from the throat. Hard chunks 
 are also blown from the nose, 
 sometimes accompanied with loss 
 of smell. Swelling of the nose, 
 headache and tightness at root of 
 nose. Face sallow, with sore, 
 bruised feeling of the bones of the 
 face, with pressure on root of nose. 
 Yellow, ichorous discharge run- 
 ning almost in a stream from the 
 nose in children with diphtheria, 
 
Treatment. 135 
 
 making the nose and face sore 
 wherever it happened to touch the 
 parts ; cured with this remedy in 
 the twelfth dilution, dose every 
 half hour. Useful in old chronic 
 cases, or where there is great sen- 
 sitiveness of the nasal membrane 
 with tendency to ulceration. 
 
 Lycopodtum. — Nose sore and 
 swollen, stopped with yellow cor- 
 ruption or acrid coryza, with dry- 
 ness behind the nose. Frontal 
 sinuses affected, has to breathe 
 with mouth open. Hawks up 
 lumps of yellow or green mucus 
 from the throat. Face sallow. 
 Constipation, with passing of 
 much flatulence and pressure on 
 rectum (Calcarea phos. quite sim- 
 ilar). Piles protrude and very 
 
136 Hay Fever. 
 
 sore when sitting down, with great 
 deal of fermentation in the bowels. 
 Too much fulness in the stomach 
 and bowels. After eating two or 
 three bites patient is filled clear up 
 to the throat. 
 
 Natrum mur. — In the beginning 
 of colds with clear bland watery 
 discharge and sneezing. Taste and 
 smell very diminished or com- 
 pletely gone. Posterior nares and 
 posterior wall of throat swollen, 
 dry and shiny. Discharge some- 
 times of clear mucus, later of scabs, 
 watery discharge from the eyes, 
 gets on the cheeks, making the 
 skin dry and shiny, finally dies 
 and chafes off. Discharge from 
 the eyes acrid, excoriating, causes 
 smarting, itching and biting ; ears 
 
Treatment. 137 
 
 crack when chewing or open and 
 shut, in hay fever. Craving for 
 milk, which causes constipation. 
 Thirst worse in the evening; con- 
 ditions all worse from acid food; bad 
 complexion; constipation. Anus 
 contracts or feels lacerated, with 
 burning and smarting, also oozing 
 of moisture from anus. 
 
 Mercurius iod. and Mercurius 
 vivus. — The former has catarrhal 
 affections tending towards a 
 chronic condition ; the discharges 
 are acrid and cause sores from be- 
 ing in contact with the membrane 
 around the nose and upper lip ; 
 more adapted to children who are 
 liable to get inflammation of tonsils 
 with every cold; discharge from 
 nose is generally yellow. This is a 
 
138 Hay Fever. 
 
 powerful acid neutralizer in those 
 cases with, above symptoms — 
 second and third triturations. The 
 latter has a great deal of sneezing, 
 with watery discharge, which is 
 hot at times and irritating, worse 
 in damp or wet weather, with 
 bruised sore feeling in left malar 
 bone, extending up to the eye and 
 forehead ; feels better from gentle 
 stroking with the warm hand ; dis- 
 charge from nose greenish-yellow ; 
 cold sensation in ears ; ears closed ; 
 sounds reverberate in the ears ; 
 glands sometimes swollen ; com- 
 plexion sallow and sickly ; throat 
 dry and burning. Byes : slimy, 
 acrid, burnings watery discharge ; 
 eye troubles are generally worse 
 at night and better if kept closed ; 
 
Treatment. 139 
 
 seldom use this remedy below the 
 twelfth dilution. 
 
 Nitric acid. — I do not think I 
 can say too much in praise of this 
 remedy, and it is not necessary to 
 wait for a constitutional syphilitic 
 dyscrasia before we employ it. 
 Green or yellow nasal discharge, 
 which is terribly acrid, irritating 
 and corroding, causing ulcers in 
 nose, with foul smelling discharge ; 
 nose stopped or too dry ; hemor- 
 rhage of dark blood, but never very 
 free ; discharge drops into posterior 
 nares and throat, and when hawked 
 out is so acrid it stings the tongue 
 and lips, so that the patient wipes 
 the latter dry as soon as possible. 
 Used it successfully in diphtheria 
 in an adult when the roof of the 
 
140 Hay Fever. 
 
 mouth and throat were one solid 
 mass of patches, the breath and 
 saliva was a perfect stench ; pains 
 are all of an acid, cutting char- 
 acter. This remedy also has con- 
 stipation, with false urging ; 
 hemorrhoids, with cutting, as from 
 acid in anus or as if anus was 
 gashed ; burning, with contraction 
 of sphincter muscle ; threatening 
 fistula, with a purple streak ex- 
 ternally extending upward into 
 the anus, with sensation like a 
 splinter or something cutting; 
 worse when first sitting ; cured with 
 one prescription. Never use it 
 below thirtieth dilution. 
 
 Pulsatilla. — Most all writers say 
 give this remedy for the mild, tear- 
 ful dispositioned persons who are 
 
Treatment. 141 
 
 easily brought to tears or laughter. 
 Permit me to go a little further. 
 If your patient has blue, or gray, 
 or gray-blue, or soft, mellow, dark 
 eyes, this remedy, in the thou- 
 sandth dilution, will seldom if ever 
 fail to give relief, no difference 
 whether the complexion is light or 
 very dark, or medium or red hair, 
 or auburn, providing the other 
 symptoms call for it. The patient 
 may be easily brought to tears or 
 be as stubborn as the proverbial 
 mule and it will give good results 
 almost every time. Now, if the 
 patient has dark complexion, hard 
 or piercing black eyes, or cold 
 hazel eyes, and a temper of the 
 same material, with the other 
 symptoms calling for this remedy, 
 
142 Hay Fever. 
 
 do not insult her condition with 
 the high dilutions, but give the 
 first or second attenuation. It 
 will never fail. I feel free to say 
 I believe there are more mistakes 
 made in prescribing this remedy 
 than any other one remedy in the 
 whole Materia Medica. I mean in 
 strength given and results ex- 
 pected. Nose may be obstructed 
 or open ; discharge yellow, green 
 or greenish-yellow, with headache 
 in temples or right side over the 
 eye ; all symptoms are better in 
 cool open air and from walking 
 about gently, but always return if 
 patient comes indoors again ; loss 
 of smell ; mouth generally has bad 
 taste in the morning, but not 
 always ; bowels are generally con- 
 
Treatment. 143 
 
 stipated ; stomach trouble is most 
 always present ; nostrils feel 
 bruised and sore outside; buzzing 
 in the ears or a sound like a wind 
 makes when blowing through pine 
 trees ; post nasal catarrh and 
 catarrh of larynx ; cough loosens 
 after he gets up and moves around 
 in the morning ; scabs hawked 
 from the throat and blown from 
 the nose ; discharge seldom if ever 
 acrid or irritating ; inflamed tonsils 
 and sore throat in girls with de- 
 layed menses ; eyes sometimes 
 affected ; corruption very often has 
 a sweet or brassy, or a very foul or 
 rotten taste ; cold hands and feet 
 are often in evidence ; sadness, 
 with spells of weeping ; more often 
 noticed in persons with the dark 
 
144 Hay Fever. 
 
 complexion and bine eyes, very 
 conscientions persons. 
 
 Other remedies such as Cal- 
 carea suL, Hepar, Kali phos., Mag- 
 nesia carb., Magnesia mur., Na- 
 trum sul., Sanguinaria, Sepia, Sili- 
 cea and Sulphur are all nsefnl and 
 will often be required in the treat- 
 ment of these diseases, for in these 
 affections, as in all others, we must, 
 when prescribing, take into consid- 
 eration the whole system, for gen- 
 erally all the different symptoms, 
 physiologically, are linked to- 
 gether like a chain, and the neu- 
 tralizing remedy will unlink the 
 last symptom first and the first 
 symptom last. 
 
Clinical Cases. 145 
 
 CLINICAL CASES. 
 
 I mentioned Calcarea fluor. as 
 being our best remedy in destroy- 
 ing the odor of dead bone, and in 
 the treatment of necrosis of the 
 nasal bones. A very few doses 
 always sufficed to remove all odor 
 in my own case, and very speedily ; 
 but I will recite another very im- 
 portant cure, where two operations 
 failed to give but temporary relief. 
 
 In November, 1899, I received a 
 
 call to visit the wife of Captain D., 
 
 on schooner , then anchored at 
 
 Girard Point. I responded, and 
 
 after prescribing for his wife he 
 
 asked me if I could do anything 
 
 for the catarrh of the nose when a 
 
 bad odor was present. I said I 
 10 
 
146 Hay Fever. 
 
 thought I could. He said, "I have 
 been operated on twice in New 
 York city ; the first time they 
 scraped the bone, but the disease 
 never let up except for a short 
 time, then the odor returned also. 
 The second time they operated 
 they removed a piece of bone so 
 big" (showing me by measuring it 
 off on his little finger), fully an 
 inch and a half long. I thought 
 it pretty well exaggerated, for the 
 nose was scarcely disfigured. 
 However, he said the bad smell re- 
 turned again and was worse than 
 ever, and at times almost made 
 him sick. Without more ado I 
 gave him some Calc. fluor., the 
 twelfth dilution, in a tumbler of 
 water ; dose, teaspoonful every 
 
Clinical Cases. 147 
 
 hour. That was on Thursday. 
 The following Saturday evening 
 I got a note to call again on Sun- 
 day afternoon and bring enough 
 medicine to last his wife and him- 
 self six months. On my arrival 
 his wife said she felt better, and he 
 said the stench from his nose was 
 somewhat lessened. After prepar- 
 ing the medicine for both he prom- 
 ised to write me after he reached 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they 
 intended to disembark until there 
 was a change in his wife's condi- 
 tion, which could but terminate in 
 death, for she had frequent 
 pulmonary haemorrhages. About 
 two months afterwards, on return- 
 ing to my office after making my 
 morning calls, I found it occupied 
 
148 Hay Fever. 
 
 by two strange gentlemen, one 
 of whom arose and introduced him- 
 self as Mr. S — ,' of Halifax, Nova 
 Scotia, and went on to say that I 
 had given medicine to a Captain 
 
 D., of schooner , and it had 
 
 given him so mnch relief that he, 
 knowing I was a snfferer from the 
 same disease, "sent me two bottles, 
 which I have about taken, and, as 
 I had occasion to come to New 
 York on business, I concluded to 
 come on over here and get two 
 bottles to pay him back and two 
 more for myself." 
 
 This, in connection with my 
 own case and several others of less 
 importance, is sufficient proof of 
 the pre-eminent virtues of this 
 remedy in nasal disease where the 
 
Clinical Cases. 149 
 
 odor of dead bone is present. It 
 being a lime remedy, its name and 
 nature are both suggestive of its 
 disinfectant, deodorizing and neu- 
 tralizing properties. 
 
 Another case cured by Mercurius 
 cor. which I think worthy of detail, 
 showing how a disease of a certain 
 form in a particular organ can be 
 transferred to other and remote 
 organs of the offspring. Nearly 
 four years ago, in February, I was 
 called on to attend a woman in 
 confinement. The child, a large, 
 healthy looking girl, was born all 
 right, the mother making a good 
 recovery. This child, as the nurse 
 stated the next day, was born with 
 the " snuffles, " but it thrived and 
 grew very fast. During the follow- 
 
150 Hay Fever. 
 
 ing spring I was called in once or 
 twice to prescribe for what seemed 
 an ordinary bronchial catarrh, 
 from which it mended qnite rapidly, 
 bnt the u snuffles " would never 
 entirely disappear. The following 
 autumn the attacks would set in 
 from a change of weather, or a 
 draft, or any exposure, as it seemed 
 very susceptible to all such. 
 Finally, in November of the same 
 year, a very bad attack of bron- 
 chitis set in, which proved fatal. 
 This, so the mother stated, was 
 the third child she had lost, the 
 one before this dying from mem- 
 branous croup, and the first from an 
 attack of bronchitis. One day 
 when speaking about this child 
 having been born with the 
 
Clinical Cases. 151 
 
 " snuffles, " she remarked that all 
 her children were born with the 
 same trouble ; and two she has liv- 
 ing, a boy and a girl, aged four 
 and six years, respectively, suffer 
 more or less all the time with 
 catarrh of the nose and throat, for 
 which I have given medicine on 
 numerous occasions. 
 
 About twelve months ago the 
 mother became pregnant again 
 and engaged me to attend her. 
 At about her sixth month she sent 
 for me to give her something for a 
 very irritating, corroding leucor- 
 rhoea. She said it hurt her so 
 much she could not stand it, as she 
 was getting all raw, both in the 
 privates and on the thighs. I 
 asked her a few questions, and one 
 
152 Hay Fever. 
 
 was : Did you ever have this be- 
 fore ? She answered that she had 
 it every time she was pregnant. I 
 told her she should have informed 
 me sooner, as that undoubtedly 
 was the cause of her children being 
 born with " snuffles," and now I 
 will cure you and see what the 
 results will be when the child is 
 born. I gave her Merc, cor., 
 twelfth, a powder in half a tumbler 
 of water, teaspoonful every half 
 hour. The next day when I called 
 she said she felt some relief, and 
 in three days all the irritating 
 properties of the discharge had dis- 
 appeared and in a few more days 
 the whole trouble ceased. After 
 she had taken the medicine for 
 eight or ten days it was discon- 
 
Clinical Cases. 153 
 
 tinued, and she remained well for 
 about three weeks, when the dis- 
 charge returned, and with it the 
 irritation, but in a lessened degree. 
 Then I had her take the medicine 
 every two hours, prepared the same 
 way, until she was to be confined. 
 The child, healthy boy, was born 
 free from " snuffles " or any trouble, 
 and now, over ten weeks old, re- 
 mains well, with no signs of trouble 
 either in the nose or bronchial 
 tubes. Now, then, if catarrh is 
 caused by an acid generated in the 
 blood from any cause whatsoever 
 (and from my own investigations 
 I am positive that it is), then this 
 disease can be inherited, and when 
 we consider that the child is being 
 nourished by this acidulated blood 
 
154 Hay Fever. 
 
 circulating and permeating every 
 vessel, organ, and tissue, how can 
 it escape being affected in some 
 manner? 
 
 This, I claim, can only occur 
 through the mother being affected, 
 for if the father should have catarrh 
 even in a severe form and the 
 mother be healthy then there is lit- 
 tle danger of the child being born 
 with the disease or even a hereditary 
 tendency thereto, for having noth- 
 ing but the mother's pure blood 
 circulating through its body would 
 carry away all weakness and ten- 
 dency to such diseases. 
 
 In order, then, to have healthy 
 children, or children born free from 
 minor ailments, it is necessary for 
 
Clinical Cases. 155 
 
 us to look more closely for ailments 
 in the pregnant mothers. 
 
 I am acquainted with a lady who 
 has had five children, all hydro- 
 cephalic, and all died from its 
 effects during childhood. The 
 mother of these children, appa- 
 rently healthy, is a sufferer of 
 catarrh of the head, and her 
 monthly waste, so I have been told, 
 has such a stench to it that it is 
 almost impossible for a person to 
 be in a room with her. I have 
 been asked several times by her 
 relatives why her children were 
 born afflicted in such a way. My 
 answer was, she should take med- 
 icine and get her periods corrected, 
 for it would be just as easy to get 
 a healthy chicken from a rotten 
 
156 Hay Fever. 
 
 egg as to get a healthy child from 
 a diseased ovum. I have not seen 
 this lady for a number of years, 
 and whether she is still giving 
 birth to diseased children or taking 
 medicine to cure the defect I know 
 not. I do not wish to say that 
 a pregnant woman cannot contract 
 catarrhal or other disease of any 
 organ and be cured of it before the 
 child is born and give birth to a 
 healthy child, but it is in those 
 cases where the disease is over- 
 looked in the mother and continues 
 until the birth of the child. 
 
 Catarrh of the nose and throat 
 are undoubtedly more amenable 
 to treatment by pure air than 
 almost any other disease by which 
 we may be afflicted, and at the 
 
Clinical Cases. 157 
 
 same time it is a disease that is 
 more easily aggravated by a change 
 of the atmosphere from dry to 
 damp than any I have met with, 
 rheumatism perhaps coming nearer 
 to it than any other disease. 
 
 The catarrhal patient's system 
 fluctuates with every contraction 
 and relaxation of the weather, for 
 when it is good he is good and 
 when it is bad he is bad. There is 
 no truer barometer in discerning 
 atmospherical changes, be they 
 ever so slight, than the system of 
 a genuine catarrhal patient. 
 
 To recommend all persons suf- 
 fering with catarrh of the head, 
 nose and throat to seek a drier 
 climate is in most cases simply a 
 waste of breath, for in ninety-nine 
 
158 Hay Fever. 
 
 cases out of a hundred the persons 
 are not situated financially so they 
 can leave their present surround- 
 ings ; so my advice to those who 
 suffer with this disease is to take 
 the baths as directed under the 
 treatment of hay fever, take the 
 indicated remedy and a good tonic 
 of iron, and I know of no better 
 one for the blood than physiological 
 tonicum. 
 
 In case this should not agree 
 with the patient's system, even in 
 drop doses, then resort should be 
 made to the sulphate of iron in the 
 two-hundredth dilution, dose every 
 two hours, or three or four times a 
 day, and continue its use for several 
 weeks ; and as this remedy acts 
 simply by absorbing the oxygen 
 
Clinical Cases, 159 
 
 from the inhaled air to feed the 
 blood and hold this fluid in con- 
 traction and while this is being ac- 
 complished the acid is neutralized, 
 water is reabsorbed and the patient 
 is relieved of his chilly or can't- 
 get-warm feelings. 
 
 The importance of keeping the 
 bowels regular and the stomach in 
 a healthy condition cannot be too 
 forcibly impressed on the patient's 
 mind, for if both or either of these 
 organs are out of order a person 
 susceptible to this disease is much 
 more liable to take cold than if 
 they are not. 
 
 A person suffering with this 
 disease should eat very sparingly 
 of pickles or any sauces or dishes 
 containing vinegar, for the acid 
 
160 Hay Fever. 
 
 contained in them renders the 
 system more amenable to cold or 
 to the effects of atmospherical 
 changes by its apparent aggrava- 
 tion of the acid condition already 
 present in the blood. 
 
 The excessive use of black 
 pepper for seasoning food shonld 
 be condemned ; in fact, it should 
 not be used at all except in very 
 limited quantities. I have seen 
 persons use this condiment with 
 such lavishment as to cause their 
 food to be perfectly black with it, 
 and in a half hour or one hour 
 after eating they would literally 
 puff and blow to get their breath. 
 It produces sluggish digestion and 
 generation of gas and in this 
 manner causing the stomach to 
 
Clinical Cases. 161 
 
 puff up, and oppression and 
 smothering is the result. Capsicum 
 or red pepper is far superior, but 
 should be used sparingly. Its 
 effects are much more general and 
 last longer, and when properly 
 used for seasoning the difference 
 will scarcely be detected and by 
 its deeper action will produce far 
 better results. 
 
 The proper amount of sleep, 
 sufficient clothing and wholesome 
 diet will go far towards preventing 
 catarrhal colds. 
 
 The old saying of keeping the 
 feet warm and the head cool is all 
 right under some conditions, but 
 does not hold good here, except in 
 summer time, for it is just as im- 
 portant to keep the head warm in 
 11 
 
162 Hay Fever. 
 
 winter time as it is the feet and 
 other parts of the body. I am 
 speaking from experience, bnt it is 
 only reasonable to assnme that 
 good results will' follow in all 
 cases. 
 
 The catarrhal or acid individual 
 ages much faster than the alkaline 
 or neutral patient. This occurs 
 through the acid destroying the 
 secreting powers of the sebaceous 
 glands, and by doing this it robs 
 the skin of its natural lubricating 
 oil ; and in these cases the skin of 
 the face becomes dry, husky, and 
 takes on a dead appearance, and in 
 some instances chafes off, more 
 noticeably on the forehead and 
 cheeks, perhaps, than anywhere 
 else, unless it be on the extrem- 
 
Clinical Cases. 163 
 
 ities. This occurs more often in 
 catarrh of the stomach or gastritis. 
 In catarrh of the head and nose 
 the effect is mostly observed in the 
 head, where it causes the scalp to 
 dry and scale off, causing in some 
 cases abundance of dandruff to fall, 
 and unless soon checked the hair 
 will also become dry, brittle and 
 break off, and finally cause bald- 
 ness, as this same oily matter 
 nourishes the hair through the 
 hair follicles. 
 
 Patients can overcome this last 
 condition by friction. This is best 
 applied with a good bristle brush, 
 giving the scalp about one hun- 
 dred strokes night and morning, 
 always brushing the scalp from 
 above downwards, which is the 
 
164 Hay Fever. 
 
 natural way the hair should grow. 
 Brushing should not be done too 
 harshly, but only with sufficient 
 force to produce a gentle stimula- 
 tion. This will prove more bene- 
 ficial than all the so-called hair 
 tonics, as the hair will soon take 
 on an oily appearance and become 
 soft and pliable again, and a new 
 growth will generally follow. 
 Witch hazel, with a few drops of 
 Capsicum, applied every night 
 may assist very nicely as a local 
 application. Use in the proportion 
 of five drops of former to an ounce 
 of the latter. The former condi- 
 tion can be overcome by the use of a 
 good turkish towel, applied gently 
 and continued until there is a 
 mild glow to the face and forehead. 
 
Clinical Cases. 165 
 
 In order to make a success of 
 the treatment the stomach and 
 bowels must be kept in a healthy 
 condition. The best remedy I 
 have found to invigorate the oil 
 cells and renew the glandular 
 secretions and prevent the hair 
 from dying and breaking is Kali 
 carb., in the sixth or twelfth dilu- 
 tion, in water ; dose, every two 
 hours, and if indicated relieves the 
 dandruff, too. Kali sul. is a 
 splendid remedy for the latter ail- 
 ment, but does not appear to be 
 capable of re-establishing the oil- 
 cells; but in this, as in all other 
 troubles, the indicated remedy is 
 the one to give, whether it be one 
 of these or some other remedy. 
 
166 
 
 Hay Fever. 
 
 Contractors. 
 Ferrum met. 
 
 Neutralizers. 
 Argentum nit. 
 
 Ferrum 
 
 sul. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF DRUGS USED. 
 
 Contractors and 
 Neutralizers, 
 Arsenicum iod. 
 Aurum met. 
 Calcarea carb. 
 44 fiuor. 
 1 ' phos. 
 44 sul. 
 Graphites. 
 Hepar. 
 Kali bich. 
 44 carb. 
 44 phos. 
 44 sul. 
 I^ycopodium. 
 Magnesia carb. 
 44 mur. 
 44 pbos. 
 Mercurius cor. 
 44 iod. 
 
 44 vivus. 
 
 Natrum carb. 
 44 mur. 
 4 ' sul. 
 Nitric acid. 
 Allium cepa. ~) 
 Apis mel. 
 Belladonna. 
 Bryonia alba 
 Nux vom. 
 Pulsatilla. 
 Sanguinaria. 
 Sepia. 
 Silicea. 
 Sulphur. 
 Euphrasia. ) 
 Glonoine. > 
 
 slightly. 
 
 doubtful. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Acid the cause of hay fever, 12 
 
 44 its action on the blood, . 16 
 
 Acid, a cause of apparent age, 162 
 
 44 " " " baldness, 163 
 
 Allium cepa, 113 
 
 Anaemia, 15 
 
 Annual attacks, 19 
 
 Apium virus, indications for, 100 
 
 Argentum nit., 123 
 
 Arsenicum alb. , no 
 
 44 iod., indications for, 99 
 
 Atmosphere, dampness, 78 
 
 44 rarefied, 79 
 
 Aurum met., 124 
 
 Bathing, frequency of, 63 
 
 Belladonna, 113 
 
 Belladonna, indications for, 126 
 
 Beverages, 72 
 
 Blood, relaxing of, 16 
 
 Bowels and stomach, . . 159 
 
 Bryonia, indications for, 127 
 
 Calcarea phos., indications for, 93 
 
 Catarrh, head and nose, 115 
 
168 Index. 
 
 Chlorides, actions on the blood, 16 
 
 Calcarea carb., indications for, 128 
 
 Calcarea fluor., indications for, 129 
 
 Classes. 
 
 1. Simple hay fever, 28 
 
 2. Catarrh plus, . 24 
 
 Climate, effects of, 73 
 
 Clinical cases, 145 
 
 Coffee as a neutralizer of acid, 68 
 
 Diet for hay fever cases, 68 
 
 Bars, symptoms, . 49 
 
 Eating at supper time, 67 
 
 Etiology, . . . 24 
 
 Euphrasia, 113 
 
 Eyes, 30 
 
 Exercise, effects of, 56 
 
 Exhaustion, 18 
 
 Ferrumiod., 108 
 
 " sul., indication for, 108 
 
 Glonoine, " " 94 
 
 Graphites, indications for, 130 
 
 Hay fever, what it is, . . .' 7 
 
 Head symptoms, 34 
 
 Heredity, 30 
 
 Heredity, , 153 
 
 Hydrastis can., indications for, 133 
 
 Iron, its action on blood, 16 
 
 Kali bich., indications for, 134 
 
 Kali carb., indication for, 89 
 
 " sul. " " 101 
 
Index. 169 
 
 Laryngeal spasms, 41 
 
 Local treatment, 66 
 
 Local treatment, 163 
 
 Lycopodium, indications for, .... 135 
 
 Magnesia phos., indications for, 96 
 
 Mercurius cor. , 86 
 
 11 bin iod., 113 
 
 " vivus, 113 
 
 Mercurius cor., case recited, 149 
 
 Mercurius iod., indications for, 137 
 
 Mercurius vivus., indications for, . . . . 138 
 
 Mountain air, 73 
 
 Mouth, 49 
 
 Natrum carb., indications for, 92 
 
 Natrum mur., indications for, 136 
 
 Nitric acid, indications for, 139 
 
 Nose, 36 
 
 Nux vomica, indications for, 102 
 
 Other remedies, .... 144 
 
 Oxygen, action on blood, 76 
 
 Pepper, black, 160 
 
 Pepper, red, 161 
 
 Pickles, 159 
 
 Potency, 82 
 
 Prevention, 57 
 
 Purgatives, 57 
 
 Pulsatilla, • ■ 113 
 
 Pulsatilla, indications for, . . ... 140 
 Remedies, . . 81 
 
170 Index. 
 
 Remedies, ........ v 123 
 
 Salt, amount for bathing, ... 63 
 
 Sanguinaria 113 
 
 Sea air, 73 
 
 Sulphates, action on blood, ....... 16 
 
 Symptoms, 29 
 
 Throat, 40 
 
 Treatment, 53 
 
 Treatment, . . 121 
 
 H 234 83 «T 
 

 

 
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