Medicine: Record for Britain

On the night of May 7, 14-year-old Michael Hippisley popped dutifully into his bed at the Stowe School, Buckingham, England. A moment later he began to sneeze. Within an hour his sleepless dormitory mates had counted 1,200 kerchoos; they estimated that he continued to sneeze every three seconds for the rest of the night.

Next day Michael Hippisley, a hay-fever victim, who had injections for hay-fever last winter, was bundled off to the infirmary. When his sneezes showed no sign of letting up, alarmed school authorities sent him home to London. His parents called in, one after the other, two general practitioners,...