Two hundred years ago, a Liverpool doctor named John Bostock was puzzled by the fact he suffered from blocked sinuses, catarrh, and a general feeling of tiredness every June. In 1819 he presented a study to fellow doctors called the Case of a Periodical Affection of the Eyes and Chest, and ran through the various treatments he tried to soothe his symptoms, which included having ice baths and taking opium.
In an attempt to broaden his research he set about looking for fellow sufferers of what he called his ‘summer catarrh’, and over the next nine years he found just 28.
Two centuries later, however, and hay fever is reaching almost epidemic proportions in the UK, with the latest figures suggesting…
