The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-05-25
For The Bulletins
DIR. woLFEs COMMON SENSE.
LETTER NO. XIV.
AsrHxA-mow TT CONES os--sYArroMs VAR

Mr. Editor:
It's popular error to regard every dis
ease attended with difficult breathing as
asthma, Consumptivc patients, and those
suffering faom disease of the heart, also
complain Of short breath. Now, although
we never have asthma without short breath,
II is very common to have short breath
where the disease is essentially different
from asthma; wish could add, less fatal
BY asthma I mean that disease of the
lungs which manifests itself in spells or
paroYysms of short or difficult breathing,
which may last few hours, a few days, or
month, passing of with free expectoration,
leaving the lungs as comfortable as before
the attack. Although this is the usual
course of asthma, it is not uniformly so.
The approach Of asthma is known by
feeling of languor, yawning, and oppression
about the stomach, with sense Of tight
ness around the lower part of the chest.
There lie headache and dryness Of the nos
trils, and violent sneezing, with sense of
chilliness and weeping eyes,
The attack may come at any time, but it
usually manifests itself toward evening.
Some suffer as soon as they lie down, but
many are Weakened out of sleep in the mid
die of the night, or toward morning, by
gasping for breath. The chest feels as
though it were bound with cord. The
patient springs up in bed, and orders the
windows to be raised and the doors to be
thrown open. The house seems "too small
to breathe in If the paroxysm is severe,
perspiration starts on the forehead the face
u haggard, the lips pale, the extremities
cold, the heart palpitates violently. 1t is
no unusual thing for the asthmatic to rush
to an open window and lean out for hours
in the coolest weather, insensible to every
influence and every feeling, except the de-
sire for air The distress experienced dur
ing q fit of asthma can only be likened to
strangulation protracted through hours,
days, weeks, and sometimes even months
Happily for the victims of this disease,
hope and confidence never flag, that nature
will soon come to their relief After a
while the tight feeling Of the chest rel axes,
the breathing becomes more easy, the pa
tent speaks coughs and oxpectorstes free
ly. The anxiety of the face disappears, the
lips lose their lividity, and, exhausted by
violent efforts to get breath, the poor suffer
or falls asleep.
The cause of all this distress, and the
reason why asthma comes on so suddenly
and passes off so mysteriously, are very
simple. The air-cells unconsciousy con
tract and expand. Any thing which irri
tates the nerves that act upon these air-cellE
may cause a spasmodic contraction to take
place on the instant, and when it does the
cells close and shut out air from the blood,
The distress is caused not by the spasm but
for the want of air which it occasions Any
obstruction in the windpipe sufficiently
great to limit in the same degree the guam
tity of air drawn into the lungs, would pro.
duce the same distres. The spasmodic con
traction occurs, like cramp, instantaneous
ly, and, like crsmp, may continue for sev
eral hours, and then pass off in an instant
From this you will understand that wha
ever irritates the nerves of the lungs ma,
cause asthma, and whatever soothes tina
irritation relaxes the spasm, and relieve
the patient However theorists may con
tend for the hereditary character of con
sumption, all must admit the purely locS
character Of asthma.
AS my object is chiefly to illustrate tn
successful treatment of asthma, shall civ
brief notice Of the various forms of thi
disease, reserving for a future time moi
ample history Of its physiological phenon
ena
NERVOUS Asthma comes on suddenl,
and passes off with very slight and often n
expectorstion. 1t occurs in persons wi
are said to be nervious--most common wit
females and at all ages. i may be pre-
duced by anything which quickens the CT
culation, as the receipt of good or bad new
lear etc. lnhysling ipecacuanha powdc
van excite 1t, Many persons will begin
wheeze tbs moment jar of this medicr
10 opened in their presence I know tv
MEDICAL men who are wholly unable
handle this drug. 1t is sometimes produ
ed by the odor of strong cheese; and h
even been known to arise from so ridiculo,
cause as the presence of q cat in the ROOF
LAENNEc notices two singular exampl
which occurred under his own observatio
One was invariably seized with asthma {
attempting to travel in certain directio