Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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11 Hay Fever Is No Longer Such a Mystery to Medical Science Skin Sensitization Teat Can Now Find What Allergy Is Troubling You K' By WILUAM C. UTLEY 'A-CHOOO-OO-OO! Ha-ha-ha-WISH-eeeeeeee! Sniffle, sniffle, wheeze—gib be a haggichiff, quig! Hey, hey, it’s the good old summer time and the hay fever season is open. <r Why, oh, why, do I have to go through this every year?”is the wail of the hay fever sufferer, and well it might be for there is hardly an affliction so relentless in its unwelcome annual visits. The answer to the victim’s cry is< that he is allergic to something in the air, probably the pollen from a plant or weed. What particular plant it is determines whether its pollen rides the air waves in May, June, July or September. Time used to be that hay fever victims, when they began to sneeze, their eyes started to water and their noses to sniffle, simply had to pack up, leave home and make for the North Woods or the resorts at Charlevoix and Mackinac island in Michigan where the air is compar atively free from dust and pollen. While this made an excellent ex cuse for a vacation it was a con siderable expense and often a great inconvenience. Fortunately today medical science has made such strides that hay fe ver can noW be treated with a pretty fair degree of success right at home. The big task is to find out what type of pollen is causing each individual case. To do this doctors may have to be expert de tectives, for many different individ uals are allergic to different things. Results of Allergy. All of us are allergic to some thing or other, whether it be a cer tain type of food, the hair of a cer tain animal, feathers from pillows, some types of dust, or even smoke. But only about one person in ten is allergic to such a degree that he is uncomfortable. By allergic we mean. In a free sense, that we are unusually sensi tive to something. A high degree of allergy to some of the things mentioned in the foregoing para graph may result in any one or combination of a number of afllic- tion»—eczema, hives, “colds,” hay fever, headache, diarrhea and other ailments. Hay fever symptoms spring from hives which occur in the nose, si nuses and eyes, causing sneezing and itching. If they were to occur In the lungs, causing spasmodic con traction of the bronchial tubes and coughing, they would produce asth ma. When hay fever occurs the pollen to which the victim is aller gic enters the nasal ducts, inflam ing them; the poison passes to the throat and bronchial tubes, and Anally to the ends of the bronchial tracts, where swelling occurs. The hay fever victim need not even be living in the neighborhood of the plants whose pollen are at the bottom of his grief. To follow a hypothetical case, let us say a patch of ragweeds was blossoming in a vacant lot of some city. A high wind came, spiriting away the seeds, lifting them up over the city and carrying them a hundred or even two hundred miles from the place they grew. At last as the wind dies they settle doom, unhappi ly, right before an unfortunate soul who is allergic to ragweed pollen without ever having discovered it. He breathes them into his nose— thousands of them, for it would take 10,000 to cover the head of a pin. Test Skin With Pollen. Soon his nasal duct is inflamed and he begins to sneeze. Then the poison passes down through his throat and bronchial tubes and Wmmmm Aerial surveys, eonducted thou sands of feet up, test the air for hay fever pollen. swelling occurs. His eyes redden, his nose itches “where he can’t get at it to scratch it,” and he begins to sniffle constantly. Perhaps our friend thinks he has a cold. But the doctor says, “Hay fever,” and tells him he had better find out what type of pollen is caus ing the trouble. The customary pro cedure is for the doctor to begin making skin sensitization tests. Lit tle scratches are made on the arm, and into each of these scratches one drop of pollen solution is placed; a different type of pollen is used on each scratch. The suf ferer is allergic to the type of pollen placed hi any scratch which red' dens end swells We'U any ear hypesheticel victim is allergic to ragweed pollen. His protests to the doctor that he has not been near any ragweed need not confuse us, for we know how the pollen got to him. The doctor explains it to him, too. Now the doctor orders injections of the proper type of pollen vaccine into the blood. Next year, now that the patient’s allergy is known, he will be given minute, but increas ing doses of the injection, starting in February and continuing for a few weeks until it is thought he should be immune when the season comes. It does not always work out that way, and sometimes daily in jections during the season itself do not help. Different pollens do their dastard ly work at different times of the year in different sections. In the eastern and central states, for instance, jjTune grass causes trouble around the beginning of that month; in early July it is Timothy hay, lata I* In a patch of ragweed; what a place for a hay fever victim! across one in the street one day he approached it closely to examine the queer animal at length. He be gan to choke up and there was a se vere excretion of fluid from the lungs. Now he had played with cats at times, and he owned a little wire-haired fox terrier, but none of these had ever affected him so. It just turned out that he was allergic to horse hair. Actually, now that skin sensitiza tion tests are common, it has been found that many supposed hay fe ver sufferers did not have hay fe ver, but were allergic to their own dog or cat. You can even be aller gic to cigarette smoke. There is on record the case of a woman who was sensitive to that kind of smoke. Her husband smoked a pipe; when she played bridge at the home of friends who smoked cigarettes she would begin to sniffle and appear to have a cfld. The doctor found what was troubling her and treated he# for it. Now her companions could smoke corn silk without bothering her. Seasonal asthma is frequently W"" -—tmm—~ Here are wfcat the lady Is beldiag are. left te rtghl: marsh elder and make bay fever seffi the following month the giant rag weed and as September starts it is the small or common ragweed. Wbea Suffering Begins. How severe a victim’s symptoms are depends upon the amount of pol len that is filling the air he breathes as well as upon his susceptibility. The amount of pollen is likely to vary from day to day. It will be stirred up more, of course, when there is a good breeze, and it will tend to settle on a calm day. In some states at the height of the season it is not unusual to find 1,000 to 2,000 grains of pollen to the cubic yard of air. Pollen thins out in higher atmospheres, but aviators making scientific tests can find it a mile above the earth. It is when the air contains a pol len count of 25 to the cubic yard that the hay fever victim begins to suffer, so you can imagine his mis ery when the count reaches 2,000! According to medical scientists, you should not sit next to an open window on a train if you would avoid hay fever, although air-con ditioned cars are all right, for the pollen is filtered from the air in them. Nasal sprays will protect the nose in some measure from attack, and a little white vaseline around the opening of the nostrils will keep some of the pollen from getting in. Victims will find themselves more comfortable in a dark room where there are no drafts. Although ten persons in one hun dred suffer to some degree because they are allergic, only one of these ten, on an average, has hay fever. Various allergy victims suffer in various ways. Sensitive te Horae Hair. Take the case of the city child who was accustomed enough to thoussndo of 1lea la hu daily hie. bus seldom. U eves, laid ryes on a keros Ptnafly csaaaog 1 caused by house dust which mixes I more actively through the air at the time of the year when the radi ators are turned on for the first time. June flies cause asthma in the area about the Great Lakes; elsewhere butterflies or other in sects could provoke it; so can cer tain foods, such as berries, aspara* gus or muskmelon. Almost any one knows somebody who simply can’t eat strawberries without get ting the hives. When a person begins to have reg ular attacks of asthma at a certain time of day or night, the doctor is likely to examine every article with which the victim regularly comes in contact at that time. If they oc cur at night, it might be the feath ers in the pillow, the hair in the bed mattress or the wool in the blankets. Boys Hate Haircuts, Anyway. Sometimes the doctor has to be a mighty clever detective to find them, however. There is the case of a small boy who had an asth matic attack every few weeks. After much observation it was found that in a- general way the attacks cor responded to the time of his peri odic visits to the barber. It was eventually found that he was aller gic to hair—not to his own hair, or the hair of anyone in his family, but to the hair of anyone with whom he was not in daily contact I The Detroit News reports the case of a doctor in that city who suffered from asthma every Sunday. He finally discovered that he was al lergic to Sunday newspapers! No kidding. He was sensitive to cer tain aromas which the various inks gave forth; because of the much larger paper on Sunday, he spent a great deal more time with it Te daily paper did aot have enough time te affect him, hat the Sunday eae did ’Way Back When MOTOR EXECUTIVE A Ah A DAI LABORER W ILUAM S. KNUDSEN, vice president of General Motors, hardly gave promise to the casual observer of being executive mate- rial 30 year ago. Born in Den mark in 1880, he came to the Unit ed States at the age of twenty, with $30 in his pocket His first job was as a reamer and riveter in a New York shipyard, and later he worked in the railroad shops at Salamanca, N. Y. v repairing locomotive boilers. Knudsen hao worked in a bicycle plant in Denmark, and he finally obtained a job as a bench hand in a similar factory in Buffalo, N. Y. The result 9 In five years, Knud sen was manager of the bicycle factory, the Keim mills which Hen ry Ford bought in 1911. During the next ten years, he vorked closely with Ford in the development of mass production of automobiles. In m Lu 1U 4, it-* Malaga, Spain, before shat and shell maned Its beanty. Civil War Makes World Conscious of Modem Changes Felt in Spain * 1921, he joined General Motors, where he steadily advanced to his present position as one of the most prominent men in the whole auto mobile industry. There is so much in liking the work you do that, even if offered more money at something I did not like, ! think ' would stick with the thing that appealed to me more. And 1 would be thinking of my own success in doing that For, when are are working on things are like, are can put in more extra hours, we take more extra pains, re can do a better job. Doing the things we like, we tire lee* easily. We are inspired toward finding better ways, and are are able to contribute so much more than we may be actually paid for at the moment that advancement cannot fail to be rapid. • • e FLIVVER KING WAS A SIMPLE MECHANIC *T*IM£ la to abort, so swift in pass- 1 mg. we should never be at loss for how *0 use IL The question should not be “How can 1 kill this evening?" but rnther “Do I need to take this valuable time for fun, or la there something important I can do with it 9 ” Consider the life of Henry Ford. He was born on a farm near Dear born. Mich., in IMS. Thi oldest of five children, Henry helped his fa ther with the plowing, shucked corn, mowed hay, cut grain, dug pota toes, and milked rows. Time nev er bung heavily on his hands. Me chanically inclined, be rigged up a small machine &hop on the farm and repaired Hatches at night for the village jeweler. After finishing the local public schools, the farmer boy left for the city to seek his for tune In Detroit, he obtaine*. a job as a mechanic’s apprautice and the fortune he received was $2.50 pe week. When he was twenty-four he returned to the farm and ran a sawmill, experimenting in his spare time with a steam car. There was never a question in his mind about what to do with time. His father was not in sympathy with Henry Ford’s experiments, so he again went to Detroit, and worked for a power and light com pany at an engineer on the night shift. During the seven years that he was there he became general manager; and night after night, at home, he worked iar into the morn ing hours in developing a gasoline motor car. Success came from his experiments at last, and in order to popularize the new vehicle, Hen ry Ford built racing cars and drova them himself in race after race. You know where Henry Ford stands today. Hta life is the story of time well aaad. It is an example worth r»- membering the next time ^pu are “how to kill time.” #-WHU Scrvicv. „ - Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.—WNU Service. C IVIL war in Spain signal izes the startling changes which have swept that ancient land in recent years. In the swift rush of daily news, more is said of military leaders and their campaigns 1 , of statesmen and changing gov ernments, than of the deep so cial and economic transforma tions behind the news, or the character of this land and its people. Long before King AlfonSo fled, these changes were of course under way, and because of them his mon archy failed. These transitions have gathered momentum, until today this once romantic land of duennas, monas teries, bullfights and leisurely pas toral life has written a new and dramatic chapter in ita long history. Where centuries-old country lanes and mountain trails used to wind, fine new concrete roads now streak over the hills. To a large degree, men have exchanged their saddle mules for flivvers, end the high wheeled, clumsy oxcart yields to the whizzing motor truck. Seaoritas Bob Their Hair. From the Bay of Biscay down to the blue Mediterranean, traditional peasant costumes are being dis carded and men are dressing in plain blue overalls. Black-eyed sen- oritas today lay away the time-hon ored mantilla, get their hair bobbed end hunt city jobs as typists, tele phone girls and shop clerks, as do their sisters in many lands. New thinking, as well as new machines, changes the way of Span ish life. Bullfighting still goes on, but now the intrepid toreadors be long to s labor union! You may still find guitars and fandangos, for Span iards are ever a music-loving peo ple, end possibly you may find here end there a lovesick couple mooning at each other through an old iron-barred window. More and morei however, the radio super sedes' the guitar and the girl has come out from behind the historic grillwork end gone to the movies with her sweetheart—or to the street barricades to fight with him I One feet to grasp, in understand ing the social muddle here, is that Spain is divided into 50 provinces; and not so many years ago it was commonly said that it also had 50 different national dances and cos tumes, together with almost as many dialects. Comparatively sudden advent of new high-speed roads, faster vehi- clea, speeches and newt broadcast by sir, and the breakdown of church influence, all combine now to dis sipate this old conservative provin cial spirit. Thus hss Spain been turned into a milling, restless land. For the first time country and town life ere freely blended, and the peasant can hear the exciting talk of city radicals and revolutionaries that yesteryear came only as a remote murmur. Spain is now becoming so mod ernized that busses of every kind and color race along from village to village, from town to city. Till a few years ago, many country people never journeyed more than 20 miles from home in their lives. Now by cheap, or even free, rides in war times, they travel all over the country! Political Parties Are Many. With the rise of the republic came, of course, more liberty of speech and action; but, bom of the 50 provinces and their 50 different ways of thinking, came also wide division of opinion and action. Political parties of all shades sprang up in great variety and num ber. Certain factions held that prog ress should be attained gradually through education of the masses— masses as yet untrained in the art of government. This is obviously a slow process and one would suppose (hat in a romantic “land of manana” a slow process would be accept able. But the manana idea is another of those old Spanish customs so rapidly disappearing; many now de mand a quicker approach, a faster progress. Thus a peek at Spain of today reveals a startling modernity of thought, civilization and up-to-the- minute comforts and contrivances, •uoerimposed upon the stubborn survival of many local ways and 1 prejudices that bend or break but* slowly. \ Irrestibly, however, the cities put on a more modern dress and, quicken their pace. Consider, hasti ly, some of the cities and towns that have figured in recent war news. > The New York ef Spain. Take a look at Barcelona, the New York of Spain. It is the largest! city in the country, the most im portant financial and industrial can-* ter and by far the busiest seaport.' The sun shines in air crisp and exhilarating as you stroll down the Paseo de Gracia, Barcelona's most important thoroughfare and indeed one of the moat interesting and modernistic streets in the world. Fine motorcars (no trucks allowed on this wide avenue) stop and go at modem American traffic signals. At the foot of the Paseo is the very heart of Barcelona—the Plaza de Cataluna—a large open apaca filled with statues, fountains, flow er beds, paved paths, and benches. Always animated, human streama flow in and out of its subway en trances. The Plaza, too, it the cen^ ter of fierce turmoil in every polity cal upheaval. It is surrounded by large, ornate structures—banks, ha* t«la, and new telephone office build ing with copper-green tower, a Yan kee skyscraper indeed in a metropolis! Flying et another comer is a wel come sight for American eyes—the Stars and Stripes indicating tha splendid offices of the United States consulate general. Ust Big signs advertise American an* tomobites. Indeed, three-fourths of ell cars in the Plaza are of MwMBf make. There is a large American bank a few doors up the street; in bookstores ere displays of American fountain pens, and in the tobacco shops even chewing gum! All these business houses use American adding machines and cash registers, and the offices hum with American typewriters. Many of the fine new apartment buildings are equipped with American doors and electric refrigerators. Hera “foreign trade” is a pulsing thing far removed from the dry statistics of our commerce. “Rambla” really means a dry ravine, but in Barcelona the ward is used to designate a wider street or boulevard. The original fascinat ing Rambla of Barcelona it Hfc# no other thoroughfare in the world! It is a long, straight avenue with a wide promenade for pedestrians in the center and is lined with tall plane trees. Busy stores flank the Rambla from end to end, interspersed with theaters, cinemas, an ancient church or two and a large number of cafes. Under bright, wide awn ings that canopy the sidewalks snrf shade the little tables, idlers ait *nd watch the lifeblood of the metrop olis stream up and down its main artery—streaming at a much quick tempo since recent shooting started I Like the Paris boulevards, each section of the Rambla bears a dif ferent name. First come ornamental kiosks displaying an amazing va« riety of newspapers and magazines in every European language. Then comes the bird market. Arranged fa| cages of all sizes along the prom enade is a bewildering show of-yel low and brown canaries, gray par* rots from western Africa, green ones from Brazil, tiny parakeets, all setting up a lively chatter. New World Gives Way. The next section is the brightest of all—the Rambla de las Flores. Here open-air flower stalls, bossed by black-haired peasant women, of- er flowers of every color and shade. Love of flowers is one point at least upon which all divergent political parties can agree! Following the flower stalls coma more kiosks where one may pro cure ice cream or soft drinks. Build ings begin to lode older now—tha New World gives way to the Old— and finally we come out into tha wide water front, with its ornate customshouse, the tall statue to Co lumbus, and the palm-lined Paata da Colon. To the right, in the shadow of tha huge, somber stone barracks, is a long double line of bookstaik. Sloping up on tha right of tha ' bor is the high hill of with a sinister old fort 1 IB turbulent days of strikes, executions of taka place hare.