CHAPTER III

_ICHTHYOL AND THE POINT IN THE NASO-PHARYNX THAT CONTROLS THE SYMPTOMS_

While the use of rosin-weed was discovered by my father, the value of ichthyol in the treatment of hay fever and the point in the naso-pharynx that controls the symptoms are discoveries of my own or, at least, I fondly think so. In current medical literature, I find no reference to it. In Merck's _History and Preparation of Ichthyol_, a summary of its use to 1913, ichthyol is advised in hypertrophic and atrophic rhinitis, but hay fever is not mentioned. Reference to recent books, as Coakley, Ballenger, Ivins, Bosworth, Kyle, Grayson, show no knowledge of the use of ichthyol in hay fever nor of the spot in the naso-pharynx that controls the symptoms.

The point of the matter is this. In hay fever, the itching and redness of the eyes, nose, and throat are controlled from a sensitive point in the naso-pharynx. Local applications to this point will relieve almost instantly not only the itching of the throat but also the itching of the eyes and nose and all symptoms of the disease. In some cases such relief carried out for several seasons makes permanent cures.

My knowledge of it came about in this wise. At about the age of sixteen I developed a rose-cold that began in June and extended into September. A few years later it began in April and lasted until October. By one of those ironical tricks that fate plays on the great ones of the earth, rosin-weed, the family remedy that cured everybody else, gave me only partial relief. It is unnecessary to follow in detail the various experiments made. This was long before the days of Dunbar's pollantin, Holbrook Curtis' ambrosia, adrenalin, and the modern vaccines. I did not think cocaine a safe drug and never used it, preferring the hay fever to the cocaine habit. About this time ichthyol was introduced by Merck for the treatment of catarrh of all mucous membranes and I found that ichthyol, used in a certain manner, relieved the symptoms completely. On swabbing the naso-pharynx with pure ichthyol, there was a severe burning sensation for a minute or so, but, when the burning subsided, there was great relief, not only of the itching throat but also of the itching of the eyes and nose. That is, in the customary swabbing of the naso-pharynx, we touch a point that controls the whole group of symptoms of the eyes, nose, and throat.

In those days the laryngeal and pharyngeal tonsils were very much to the fore in medical discussions, and at first I thought that this point was probably the pharyngeal tonsil of Luschka. However, judging from the location of the most severe burning, the controlling point is rather on the upper surface of the soft palate. The exact location of this point is not of practical importance. If you swab each side of the naso-pharynx with plenty of ichthyol, the reflex contraction of the pharynx while the swab is in it will spread the ichthyol over the right territory.