Hie Transit

One of the earliest recorded victims of chronic hiccups was the poet Aristophanes (circa 448-385 B.C.), a very hearty eater. On his physician's advice, he tried holding his breath and gargling water -- both with out success. In desperation, he learned how to tickle his nose until he sneezed, which helped somewhat as a counterirritant.

Because hiccup seizures are usually short-lived and only mildly painful, most people refuse to take them seriously. The victims are generally objects of ridicule. In most homes, a hiccup attack is still the signal to dust off all the old folk remedies ; spinning around nine times while swallowing nine gulps of water; standing on the head; clutching the earlobe for five minutes ; walking very fast ; drinking from the far side of a tumbler; counting back wards; being frightened.

To physicians, hiccups are no laughing matter. Some attacks persist and eventually kill the patient. In extreme cases, doctors have been known to crush the phrenic nerve, which temporarily paralyzes the diaphragm.

In the current Medical Record, veteran Canadian Hiccupper William Renwick Riddell, who has suffered and survived attacks lasting as long as twelve days, solemnly offers a new home remedy that smacks of the Middle Ages : treat the hiccup as something foreign to yourself; exorcise it with round, full-throated curses.

* Comedienne Bea Lillie allegedly once made 150,000 francs when a Juan-les-Pins croupier mistook her hiccups for cries of "Banco."

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