# What did people think seasonal pollen allergies were caused by before science explained it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-think-seasonal-pollen-allergies-were-caused-by-before-science-explained-it/773988 "2016-12-06T02:36:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-think-seasonal-pollen-allergies-were-caused-by-before-science-explained-it/773988/1 "2016-12-06T02:36:40Z")
Just curious. Re the [allergy wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy) > [@](#): > > The concept of “allergy” was originally introduced in 1906 by the Viennese pediatrician Clemens von Pirquet, after he noted that some of his patients were hypersensitive to normally innocuous entities such as dust, pollen, or certain foods.[121] Pirquet called this phenomenon “allergy” from the Ancient Greek words ἄλλος allos meaning “other” and ἔργον ergon meaning “work”. What did people think season allergies were caused by before that explanation? Did they specifically connect pollen to the problem or not? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-think-seasonal-pollen-allergies-were-caused-by-before-science-explained-it/773988/2 "2016-12-06T02:45:58Z")
A mention of ‘[hay fever](http://carloz.newsvine.com/_news/2011/04/10/6444888-a-history-of-hay-fever-the-condition-and-the-name)’ here from 1829. I don’t think people had a difficult time understanding certain plants could cause the pollen allergies when they had a rapid reaction to direct exposure but narrowing it down to pollen in particular and more indirect exposure would have required more scientific study. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-think-seasonal-pollen-allergies-were-caused-by-before-science-explained-it/773988/3 "2016-12-06T08:37:37Z")
Living in a city environment it might be difficult to think of how much more obvious the correlation between cause and effect would be in an agrarian society. If you go outside your apartment on a particular day and get a runny nose and eyes, it’s not easy to draw the link to the wind bringing pollen from trees you haven’t even noticed flowering. It’s completely different when you spend your life with the offending plants, know their patterns and location and can notice the wax of wane of symptoms depending on what’s in bloom and how close you is to the source. That said I don’t know how well people would have known their allergies, or if it was all grouped in with hay fever. Anyone have more pre 20th century descriptions? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-think-seasonal-pollen-allergies-were-caused-by-before-science-explained-it/773988/4 "2016-12-06T08:40:17Z")
Earliest diagnosis of Hay Fever (not called that, possibly called “rose fever”) was apparently in [the 10th C](https://books.google.co.za/books?id=DoMVs4HuDAoC&pg=PA31&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false) by [Rhazes](http://www.achooallergy.com/learning/a-history-of-allergies-and-asthma-part-two-the-middle-ages-and-the-renaissance/). I can find references to his dissertation but no copy of the thing itself. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-think-seasonal-pollen-allergies-were-caused-by-before-science-explained-it/773988/5 "2016-12-06T09:46:18Z")
A history of [allergies from some Kiwis](http://www.allergyclinic.co.nz/history_allergy.aspx). > [@](#): > > Perhaps the earliest report of allergic disease is that of King Menses of Egypt, who was killed by the sting of a wasp at some time between 3640 and 3300 BC. Another report from ancient history is that of Britannicus, the son of the Roman Emperor Claudius. He was allergic to horses and “would develop a rash and his eyes swelled to the extent that he could not see where he was going”. Accordingly, the honour of riding at the head of the young patricians fell to Nero who was Claudius’s adopted son. Nero allegedly threw Christians to the lions and killed Britannicus. Sir Thomas More gives the next authoritative account of allergy: King Richard III used his allergy to strawberries to good effect in arranging the judicial murder of Lord William Hastings. The King surreptitiously ate some strawberries just prior to giving an audience to Hastings and promptly developed acute urticaria. He then accused Hastings of putting a curse on him, an action that demanded the head of Hastings on a plate. > The Roman philosopher, Lucretius observing exaggerated responses to commonly occurring substances said “what is food for some may be fierce poisons for others”. However, the modern era of allergy started in the 1800s with the description of hay fever ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-think-seasonal-pollen-allergies-were-caused-by-before-science-explained-it/773988/6 "2016-12-06T22:02:36Z")
That last part I think is the key: Some people react to certain “poisons” more than others. So pollen was a mild poison … to some. But from there things might have gotten weird. E.g., some people thought that starting by small and increasing exposure to a poison would eventually result in a resistance to it. Something that no modern allergy Doctor would subscribe to, of course.😉