Hay Asthma Hay Cold, Or Hay Fever, an affection first described by Dr. John Bostock in 1810, under the name catarrhus oesthus. The local symptoms denote subacute inflammation of the nostrils (coryza), and of the bronchial mucous membrane (bronchitis), together with irritability of the eyes, and, in a certain proportion of cases, bronchial spasm or asthma. More or less fever and other evidences of constitutional disturbance accompany the affection. The foregoing names imply that the cause is contained in emanations from hay. Observations show that fresh or newly mown hay causes the affection in some persons; but this expression of the causation is not sufficiently comprehensive, as other emanations-from the vegetable kingdom give rise to it. The special cause or causes contained therein have not as yet been ascertained. It is probable that different persons are affected by the products of different kinds of vegetation, diffused in the atmosphere. The peculiar susceptibility to their influence is inherent in the system; that is, it is an idiosyncrasy; and this idiosyncrasy is manifested only during the summer or autumnal months. In some cases the affection occurs in successive years precisely at the same period, and has a uniform duration.

It rarely if ever persists or is developed after the occurrence of black frosts. It appears to be unknown in the southern states and in the northern regions of Canada. It is never developed on the sea; and persons suffering from it find instant and complete relief after the first 12 or 24 hours of a sea voyage. Relief is also obtained in situations where there is little or no vegetation. These facts render it certain that the cause is contained in the atmosphere, and that it is of vegetable origin. The affection has been elaborately studied by Dr. Morrill Wyman, author of. a work entitled "Autumnal Catarrh (Hay Fever)" (1872). According to this author, there are two forms of annually recurring bronchial inflammation (catarrh) in the northern part of this country, affecting persons with a peculiar idiosyncrasy. The first is often called the rose cold or June cold, commencing in the latter part of May or early in June, and continuing into July. This corresponds to the affection known in England as hay asthma or hay fever. The other form is called by Dr. Wyman catarrhus autumnalis or autumnal catarrh.

In this form the affection begins generally in the third or fourth week of August, and ends in the latter part of September or in October. Dr. Wyman has collected facts which show that relief may be obtained by going to certain portions of the White Mountain region, to Mount Mansfield in Vermont, to the Adirondack mountains, or generally to any point lying 800 ft. above the sea. Persons who suffer from the affection in the places in which they reside, may secure relief and exemption by various changes of residence, to be determined in each case by individual experience, inasmuch as the particular agencies are unknown. The treatment of the affection, when removal without the region in which the cause exists is not practicable, must consist of palliative measures. Iodide of potassium, and the salts of bromine, arsenic, and strychnine, have been found useful. Prof. Helmholtz has discovered vibrio-like organisms in the nasal secretions in this complaint, whose action is arrested by the local employment of quinine.