Pulmonary Hypersensitivity Disease Due to Inhaled Organic Antigens

Excerpt

In 1713 Ramazzini (1) described under the title of "Diseases of Sifters and Measurers of Grain" the appearance of respiratory diseases due to the inhalation of the dust of crumbling overheated cereal grains, which had not been properly dried before storage. Cough, shortness of breath, and cachexia developed in the workers plagued by this dust, who "heaped a thousand curses on their calling" and rarely reached old age. In the light of present knowledge it is probable that a variety of lung disorders were provoked by these dusts. In the last 30 to 40 years the diseases of farmer's lung