Recent research on hay fever
The following from an article ( Why is hay fever so bad this year? The pollen bomb’s to blame ) in The Times . I am not happy with the way many phenomena are now described as a 'bomb' when innocents are suffering from real bombs somewhere. The less important bits have been struck out, while the important bits are magnified, to make it easier for you to read. Dr John Bostock had tried everything — cold baths, opium, doses of mercury and even bloodletting — but he could get no relief. Every year at “about the beginning or middle of June”, the 46-year-old would be struck down by “the most acute itching and smarting, accompanied with a feeling of small points striking or darting” into the eye. It was March 1819, and Bostock, a doctor from Liverpool, was describing the first recorded case of hay fever to the Medical and Chirurgical Society. Nowadays the symptoms are far from unusual. According to Allergy UK , one in four adults and one in eight children suffer from allergic rhi