--- title: Medicine: Art v. Science description: On the art of nose-blowing, said the New York State Department of Health last week, there are many schools of thought, but on nose-blowing as a science, only one. Strictly unscientific is the... canonical: https://time.com/archive/6759408/medicine-art-v-science/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 1938-09-05T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-28T16:59:04.170Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Medicine: Art v. Science og:description: On the art of nose-blowing, said the New York State Department of Health last week, there are many schools of thought, but on nose-blowing as a science, only one. Strictly unscientific is the... og:url: https://time.com/archive/6759408/medicine-art-v-science/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Medicine: Art v. Science twitter:description: On the art of nose-blowing, said the New York State Department of Health last week, there are many schools of thought, but on nose-blowing as a science, only one. Strictly unscientific is the... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Medicine: Art v. Science by [TIME](/author/time/) Sep 5, 1938 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Sep 5, 1938 4:00 AM CUT On the art of nose-blowing, said the New York State Department of Health last week, there are many schools of thought, but on nose-blowing as a science, only one. Strictly unscientific is the popular custom of gripping the end of the nose with the handkerchief, for it closes the nostrils, backfires the nose into the ear tubes or sinuses. When the nose is in good hearty shape, the grip method may not be harmful, but “when it is diseased, beware!” Proper procedure: “Place the handkerchief about one and one-half inches above the tip of the nose, holding the cloth immediately above the nasal bones, at all times keeping the nostrils open, and then blow.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6759408/medicine-art-v-science/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6759408/medicine-art-v-science/"},"headline":"Medicine: Art v. Science","datePublished":"1938-09-05T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-28T16:59:04.170Z","description":"On the art of nose-blowing, said the New York State Department of Health last week, there are many schools of thought, but on nose-blowing as a science, only one. Strictly unscientific is the...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6759408/medicine-art-v-science/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6759408/medicine-art-v-science/","name":"Medicine: Art v. Science"}}]}] ```