The sufferer from hay fever is a pathetic spectacle, with streaming eyes and a profusely flowing nose, which no amount of mopping and blowing can check; indeed it only seems to aggravate the flow. Every now and then his conversation is interrupted by a shattering sneeze. He is not as a rule ill enough to go to bed and must carry on with his job under very tiring conditions.
Though true hay fever, as its name signifies, is always due to grass pollen, or less commonly to plant pollen, similar attacks of watery discharge from the nose can be provoked in persons with a sensitive nasal lining by breathing in various irritating substances – stone dust, coal dust, emanations from horses, dogs and other animals, or the perfumes of flowers may bring on an attack, or even in some instances, too much of face powder. House-hold dust has been known to cause a “running” nose and so too have road dust and the inhalation of tobacco dust. Exposure to bright sunlight or to a cold wind after leaving a warm room can aggravate matters when the lining of the nose is chronically congested and irritable.