THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF ALLERGIES: CASE STUDY: CHEMICAL SUSCEPTIBILITY
Sister Francesca came to me with a peculiar complaint. She suffered from aches and pains in her rib cage, on both sides, about six inches below her armpits. While aches and pains are commonly the result of allergylike problems, there were no organs in that particular part of the body which would be likely to give rise to them. I was confused, more so when I noticed that her associate, who had accompanied her to the doctor, was fighting back a smile as the sister related her problem.
I later found out the reason for the strange soreness: the sister had a habit of falling asleep every morning at Mass. As she began to snore, her fellow nuns on either side would crack her in the ribs with their elbows to wake her up again. This went on repeatedly during Mass, giving rise to her medical complaint.
Upon inquiry, I found that the chapel of her convent was directly over the garage which held the community’s five automobiles. I therefore arranged with the priests who drove these cars to leave all of them outside for a week and leave the doors of the garage wide open. They were sworn to secrecy, however, and Sister Francesca was never told anything about this arrangement.
That week, Sister Francesca attended Mass as usual, but was alert and awake all week, with no snoring and no sore ribs. Then, again without telling her, the priests were instructed to resume parking the cars in the garage with the door closed. On the next morning, Sister Francesca entered the chapel, took her seat, and promptly fell asleep. The other nuns awakened her as she began to snore.
It was a very convincing experiment, and from that point on the automobiles were kept outside the incriminated garage.
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