29-2

ASTHMA.

acid ;* white hellebore, and a strong decoction of digitalis. Insome cases, an infusion of tobacco leaves, used as a lotion, has cur-ed the itch.

Much mischief is likewise done by the use of mercury in thisdisease. Some persons are so fool-hardy as to wash the parts af-fected with a strong solution of the corrosive sublimate. Othersuse the mercurial ointment, without taking the least care either toavoid cold, keep the body open, or observe a proper regimen.The consequences of such conduct may be easily guessed. I haveknown even the mercurial girdles produce bad effects, and wouldadvise every person, as he values his health, to beware how lie usesthem. Mercury ought never to be used as a medicine without thegreatest care. Ignorant people look upon these girdles as a kindof charm, without considering that the mercury enters the body.

Those who would avoid this detestable disease, ought to bewareof infected persons, to use wholesome food, and to study universalcleanliness.f

Asthma.

The asthma is a spasmodic! disease of the lungs, coming on byparoxysms, which seldom admits of a cure. Persons in the de-cline of life are most liable to it. It is distinguished into the moistaud dry, or humoral and nervous. The former is attended withexpectoration or spitting ; but in the latter the patient seldom spits,

Take Oxymuriate of Mercury, 12 grains.

Muriate of Ammonia, 1 drachm.

Decoction of White Hellebore,

12 ounces.Make a lotion.

* Take Sulphuric Acid, J drachm

Prepared Lard, 1 ounce.

Make an ointment.

Take White Precipitate of Mercury.

2 drachms.Superacetate of Lead,Subcarbonate of Potash,

of each, 10 grains.

Prepared Lard, 2 ounces.

Essential Oil of Bergamot, 25 drops.

Make an ointment, to be rubbed in every

night at bed-time.

t The itch is now by cleanliness banished from every genteel family in Britain. It»till, however, prevails among the poorer sorts of peasantry, and among the manufac-turers in England. These are not only sufficient to keep the seeds of the disease alive,but to spread the infection among others. It were to be wished that some effectualmethod could be devised/or extirpating it altogether. Several country clergymen havetold me, that by getting such as were infected cured, and strongly recommending anattention to cleanliness, tl.ey have banished the itch entirely out of their parishes.Why might not others do the same 1

t Dr. Cullen, and most other writers, refer the proximate or immediate cause ofasthma to a preternatural ^r spasmodic construction of the muscular fibres of the air-oells of the lungs, which not only prevents their being so dilated as to admit of a fre«and ftill inspiration, but also gives them a rigidity which interferes with a free and fullexpiration. This doctrine, however, has been disputed by Dr. Bree, who, in a veryingenious treatise on this disease, gives it as his opinion that irritation situated withinthe bronchia or air-cavities, and arising either from an effusion of serum, or from aerialacrimony, is the true proximate cause of convulsive asthma. The mucus, which i?excreted in the course of the disease, and which has been looked upon by Dr. CulSenand others as only an effect, Dr. B. views as a prominent cause of the paroxysm ; orwhen it is absent, only yielding to a different cause equally irritating to the organ, andexciting spasmodic contractions of the respiratory muscles. Dr. Darwin says, thatwhatever may be the remote causes of paroxysms of asthma, the immediate cause ofthe convulsive respiration, whether in the common asthma, or in what is termed theconvulsive, which are perhaps only different degrees of the same disease, must beowing to violent voluntary exertions to relieve pain, as in other convulsions : andthe increase of irritability to external stimuli, or of sensibility during sleep, raust beca-rios them to commence at this time. Ep,