ALLERGY OF THE UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT IN INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD

Abstract

In 1925 at the seventy-sixth annual session of the American Medical Association and before the Section on Laryngology, Otology and Rhinology we had occasion to present a paper entitled Allergy : A Nonsurgical Disease of the Nose and Throat. l Now, fourteen years later, we find ourselves impelled to discuss the same topic. Obviously, in the long interval since, we have not been favorably impressed with the reaction to our previous effort ; we still feel it necessary to reiterate that allergy is a nonsurgical disease of the nose and throat. Specifically, we still see too many children who have been treated for repeated colds, chronic sinusitis, chronic bronchitis and recurrent pneumonia, by cold shots, sinus drainage and adenotonsillectomy until a frank, unmistakable attack of bronchial asthma brings a surprised awakening to the fact that the essential cause of the colds, sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia is allergy. From continued experiences of this sort we are forced to conclude that there has been no marked change in the traditional belief that infection is the chief if not the only cause of all the disturbances we have enumerated and surgical treatment the chief if not the only method of therapy. We are further confirmed in this conclusion by the persistent