Allergy First ever recorded case?

[Reiecta]

I was wondering something my searching skills did not answer to: what was the first ever recorded case of an allergy that is not hay fever?

 

Apparently, hay fever was already known relatively early on (like 1800's or even earlier) and so had an early consensus probably. It was even discovered due to some people self-diagnosing (some of them correct about pollen being the culprit).

 

But what about other allergies? When did doctors for the first time diagnose a person with an allergy to house dust mites or cats. All I could find about this is that someone proposed the idea that dust from trains could have been the culprit of allergic symptoms and that a person named Henry Hyde Salter, when talking about asthma, noticed that 'individuals experienced symptoms when petting a cat, sleeping on a feather pillow, or passing by a poultry shop.'

 

But what was the first time people knew allergies towards something that wasn't pollen existed? When did people sneeze so much outside spring and experienced the other symptoms that came with it that all doctors were like: "This response is the same as some have towards pollen." What was the first time doctors diagnosed people with these 'deviant allergies'

[colormepink]

That...is a really good question actually.

Honestly, I hadn't even thought about it, but it sounds really intriguing, but also kinda hard to look for, I really wish I could answer it, but after searching I also didn't find anything relevant lol

[Stimuli]

According to AI, this is what I was able to find:

"The first recorded case of a person being allergic to animals dates back to the 1800s. Dr. Charles Blackley, a British physician, documented his own allergic reaction to horses in 1873. His observations laid the groundwork for understanding allergic reactions to animals."

[gryffin]

The lovably named "Achoo Blog" has a three-part history of pre-nineteenth-century testimonies about allergies and asthma:

https://www.achooallergy.com/blog/learning/a-history-of-allergies-and-asthma-part-one-the-ancients-perspective/

https://www.achooallergy.com/blog/learning/a-history-of-allergies-and-asthma-part-two-the-middle-ages-and-the-renaissance/

https://www.achooallergy.com/blog/learning/a-history-of-allergies-part-three-the-16th-century-to-the-20th-century/

There's an entire book about the history of allergy - which I presume is the source for the above - but I don't have access to it, unfortunately:

https://karger.com/books/book/217/History-of-Allergy

Not having access to the 'proper' publication, I don't know which passages of which texts these claims are based, e.g. that of Britannicus being allergic to horses (though not in a sneezy way). I read Latin and Ancient Greek for a living, so it would be fun to check!

This is stretching the definition of "allergy" a bit, but there's definitely a report in some Greek author that some people sneeze when they look at the sun.

[Stimuli]

1 hour ago, gryffin said:

The lovably named "Achoo Blog" has a three-part history of pre-nineteenth-century testimonies about allergies and asthma:

https://www.achooallergy.com/blog/learning/a-history-of-allergies-and-asthma-part-one-the-ancients-perspective/

https://www.achooallergy.com/blog/learning/a-history-of-allergies-and-asthma-part-two-the-middle-ages-and-the-renaissance/

https://www.achooallergy.com/blog/learning/a-history-of-allergies-part-three-the-16th-century-to-the-20th-century/

There's an entire book about the history of allergy - which I presume is the source for the above - but I don't have access to it, unfortunately:

https://karger.com/books/book/217/History-of-Allergy

Not having access to the 'proper' publication, I don't know which passages of which texts these claims are based, e.g. that of Britannicus being allergic to horses (though not in a sneezy way). I read Latin and Ancient Greek for a living, so it would be fun to check!

This is stretching the definition of "allergy" a bit, but there's definitely a report in some Greek author that some people sneeze when they look at the sun.

Now this is some seriously cool stuff 😍

[gryffin]

I've looked it up, and the report about photic sneezes is in the treatise entitled Problems attributed, in part falsely, to Aristotle:

Διὰ τί πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον βλέψαντες πτάρνυνται μᾶλλον; ἢ διότι κινεῖ θερμαίνων· καθάπερ οὖν πτεροῖς θιγγάνοντες. ἀμφότεροι γὰρ τὸ αὐτὸ ποιοῦσιν· τῇ γὰρ κινήσει θερμαίνοντες ἐκ τοῦ ὑγροῦ θᾶττον πνεῦμα ποιοῦσιν. τούτου δὲ ἡ ἔξοδος πταρμός. (961b Bekker)

"Why do people sneeze more after looking at the sun? Perhaps because it brings about motion by warming, just like those who tickle with feathers. They both do the same thing: by means of motion they bring about warmth and suddenly they produce breath out of the humid element, and its way out is a sneeze." 

(I'm at home so I'm making up the translation on the fly, I'll check a reputable edition and translation when I'm next in a library.)

The Problems have a whole section devoted to "Everything to do with nostrils" (section 33 if you're interested) and the first several paragraphs are all about sneezing, with such headings as:

- Why does a sneeze stop a hiccup but not a burp?

- Why is it that, if someone about to sneeze rubs his eyes, he sneezes less?

- Why do people mostly sneeze twice, and not once or more (than twice)?

- Why do a sneeze, holding one's breath, and vinegar stop a hiccup?

- Why do we think a sneeze is (a sign from) a god, but not a cough or a cold?

- Why is it that other emissions of breath, like farts and burps, are not sacred, but sneezes are sacred?

- Why does man sneeze more than the other animals?

And so on. #ancientworldproblems, as they say... 

I'd never heard of the trick about rubbing your eyes to stop a sneeze. I should try it at some point (gently).

Edited February 16 by gryffin