The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-06-02

termitting tever.
The paroxysms of Hay Asthma occur
only once year, but the regularity OF their
return is accomplished with almost the pre-
cision of ,lock work. Many sufferers can
not only tell the day in July, August, or
September when their aflliction will begin,
but the very hour and make their prepar'
atoms accordingly. They can not tell, how
ever, with like precision, when their suffer
ing will cease; though they hope for relief
when the first hoar frost appears.
There are three conditions of the atmos.
phere which induce asthma /. Its cleo.
trical state; 2. Foreign matter, and D.
The thermal condition. The immediate
cause Of asthma, as already stated, is NOR
bid sensibility of the pulmonary nerves
permeatng the membrane lining the air
tubes and air.cels. There is great deal
Of difference in the influence produced
upon different persons by the same cause.
Hence il is that some estimates breathe
best in the smoky atmosphere of city,
while others can not pass single night in
it without the unwelcome companionship
of a paroxysm Some are comfortable only
on grounds surrounding marsh, while
others sleep placidly in the pure air on
mountain range. Some persons can sleep
in one street of town, but not in another !;
and on one side of street, but not on the
opposite: and even IN the back room of a
house but not in the front.
TREATMENT.-The hitherto abortive
efforts to treat asthma successfully have
produced profound public conviction
that the malady is incurable. Physicians
almost universally regard it In that light,
and patients have long since ceased to ex-
pect more than pallistion of their suiterings.
This state of the popular mind is, in itself,
the strongest testim, ny that can be offered
against the truth of those principles OF prac'
| tice which have hitherto directed the ad-
ministration of medicine. II any good is
really to be effected by medicines, 1t must
be in some radical change in the manner OF
using them. The treatment pursued TOR
ages has been one continuous round OF ex-
periments through the same channel-the
stomach. There is scarce any article in
the Materia Medica which has not, at one
time or another, been tried as 9 remedy for
asthma, and yet, from each and all, failure
and disappointment have been the only re-
turns.
Why is this9 We can find no sufficient
reason in either the cause, the pathology,
or theprogress Of asthma. A disease may
spring from SO deeply rooted a vice in the
system, or depend on such extensive dis
organization, or be so rapid in its progress,
as to place at defiance the most efficient
remedies. But we have here a disease
most simple in its origin and in the changes
to which it gives rise, and remarkable for
the slowness of its progress. What is
astbma2 An affection Of the air.tubes and
air-cells, arising from a morbid sensibility
of the pulmonary nerves, 1t comes from
local cause, and is maintained by local
condition. If we investigate its nature
more closely, pathological anatomy only
confirms this opinion. In cases OF very
aggravated character, every organ In the
body is found healthy. In case we find
morbid irritability Of the lungs; in sec
ond, thickening of the mucous membrane
in a third, liberation of this membrane IN
a fourth, the expansion of the airtubes and
cells into bags or pouches; while in fifth
the air-cels are ruptured, and more or less
destroyed But there is nothing in the
origin of asthma that could not have been
controlled and thus prevented all THESE Dao
results II comes from such causes as pro
duce our simplest colds or severe intlam
nations, 1t progresses slowly, and for {
long time the general health continues
tolerably good--fa better, in fact, than II
usual in other serious local affections
Reasoning, priori, we should expect tC
find asthma one of the most durable dis
eases; yet, strange to say, nothing has HI
therto been done to prove it such. To &C
count for this result, there must be SOM
great fallacy in the treatment, which VI
conceive to be in the practice Of swallow
ing medicine in the stomach instead of in
haling the remedy direct into the lungs
Very respectfully,
N. B. WOLFE, M. d.
LAG Smith ST., Cincinnati D.
DR.. Wolf may be consulted by letter fire
OF charge, by any one suffering with dis