"Irrepressible Sternutation"

"Is there any cure for hay fever?" asked a patient once of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

"Yes," he answered. "Gravel . . . taken about eight feet deep."

Today, although physicians know little more about hay fever than Dr. Holmes did, their attitude is more optimistic. To them the disease which annually sets 6,000,000 U. S. victims gasping is a common form of allergy: a bodily sensitivity to certain foreign substances such as eggs, milk, wheat, horsehair, pollen grains, banana oil. Once these substances get into the bloodstream of sensitive people, there ensue such violent reactions as hives, vomiting, blinding headaches, and what Henry Ward Beecher lovingly called "irrepressible sternutation" (sneezing).

This week, Allergist Laurence Farmer of Manhattan presented a frank, scientific discussion of allergy in a little book* full of medical anecdotes. Interesting facts:

> "In Germany [before 1920] . . . considerable attention was attracted to an operation which consisted of the bisection of one of the ethmoid [branches of the nasal] nerves. The results were . . . discouraging, since instead of curing hay fever, this procedure sometimes produced neuralgia, hemorrhages and double vision. . . . [In the U. S.] local treatments such as belladonna plasters over the kidneys and ice bags over the vertebrae were enthusiastically recommended. A worthy Ph.D. pleaded for selfdiscipline, fervently exhorting his hearers not to get the sneezing habit--which was very much like bidding a patient with a raging fever to keep cool. . . . Treatment ranged from what was called respiratory gymnastics to such Spartan measures as cauterization of the prostate gland in males and bone-breaking without discrimination of sex."

> Latest theory of the complicated workings of allergic reaction: An allergen enters the bloodstream. If there are specific antibodies already present in the blood, the allergen is "conquered" and no symptoms result. But if the body is taken unawares, and antibodies are resting in tissue cells, a terrific battle follows. The offending allergen may be "neutralized," but only with great damage to tissue cells. As the cells are torn, large quantities of the chemical histamine escape into the bloodstream, cause "certain organic reactions ... in the walls of the blood vessels and in the smooth muscles."

> Standard rule in allergy therapy: "Free the patient of exposure, if possible. If not, make him capable of sustaining it." Standard procedure consists of: 1) skin and diet tests to detect the offending substances; 2) injections or feeding of minute quantities of the allergen until immunity is produced. This procedure takes many weary months, often years, has brought a good percentage of successful results with victims of every kind of allergy--from canteloupe to horsehair.

* WHAT'S YOUR ALLERGY? -- Random House ($2).

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