San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-10


II he remained for few minutes in q room
with bunch of violets. The neighborhood
of privet hedge and the pollen Of the COM
mon daisy are said to have given rise TO
more inconvenience than even the scent Of
new mown hay. We are told Of lady who
could never remain in the room with a single
stalk Of Indian corn without being seized
with shortness of breath; and an instance is
recorded of a man that could never pass the
shop Of a certain ropemaker in his native
town without suffering from asthmatic symp-
tomf, presumably owing to the dust from
the flax.
Cullen speaks Of the case of man who was
seized with fits of sneezing whenever rice was
thrashed in the neighborhood of his house;
and the effect of ipecacuanha dust Is well
known to hospital servants. Medical students
have declared that they are attacked with
shortness of breath If bottle of ipecacuanha
powder Is merely opened in the room where
they are, and that in none of them does asth-
ma occur under any other circumstances; no
other irritant will produce 1t. 1t is related
that the wife Of an apothecary was seized
with asthma whenever ipecacuanha root was
powdered in the surgery, even if she hap
pened to be in another part of the house at
the time People insensible to ipecacuanha
will experience the same sensations from lin
seed, mustard or scammony; and an epidemic
of sneezing was traced to- the use of bitter
apple which had been powdered over a variety
Of articles as preventive of moth. Scents Of
all kinds may induce asthmatic attacks, and
thundery weather provokes them.
An American writer has remarked that
the complaint is patrician, occurring mainly
amongst those in high rank and social POSI-
ton, or who are eminent for mental and
literary attachments. Divines, poets, medi-
cal men and ladies Of fashion are included
in the list of examples 1t Is certainly q
o>rroborating fact that farmers and field
laborers, who are of necessity exposed to
the influence of pollen, rarely suffer from it,
owing, it is contended, to absence Of predis-
position, which mental culture induces;
whilst it Is more simply explained that they
are rendered insusceptible to the action Of
grasses by constant exposure to their infiu-
ence.
ASTHMA FROM ANIMALS.
Similar sufferings to those produced by
vegetable effluvia occur from contact with
many animals DR.. Hyde Salter, in his
valuable work on asthma, relates that he has
met with many cases in which the effluvium
from horses wild beasts, guinea pigs, cattle,
dogs, rabbits and hares would Immediately
give rise to a paroxysm. One of his patients
always had fit of asthma brought on by the
presence of horses He was the proprietor OF
an equestrian establishment, and was there
fore always asthmatic; but he had no sus-
picion of the real cause Of his symptoms till
he made his fortune and retired from bust
ness, when he almost Immediately lost them.
Cat asthma, from nursing cat or kitten,
al L. l,r- 4
ysms are even more violent The influence
seems to be stronger in kittens from two
months old and upwards than in full grown
cats; but after the removal of the cause the
symptoms very quickly subside Some
people are attacked with sneezing in the
presence of all animals.
There is no invention or imagination or
exaggeration in these things, and what may
be an irritant to one class of estimates
may not be in the least so to another. One
person is obliged to expatriate himself in the
hay season; another cannot endure the scent
of flowers; another cannot sleep on a down
pillow, or use mustard in any shape, or pass
poulterers shop. Even the sunlight is ter
rible to some inveterate sneezers
A sudden fright may induce a fit of
asthma, or, on the contrary, may cure it;
indeed, cure by violent emotion is more
sudden and complete than by any other
remedy confirmed asthmatic states that
once when he was suffering from an I'M
usually severe attack, so bad that he had
been unable to speak or move all day, he
was suddenly alarmed by the illness Of a
relative He ran down two flights of stairs
and up again, administered the restoratives
he had procured, and then observed, to his
establishment, that his asthma was gonel
Another sufferer relates that he was in bed
breathing with the greatest difficulty, and
unable to move, when a fire broke out op-
posite his house When the excitement was
over, he found that he had been standing
with others looking out of the window, and
that he had forgotten all about his asthma
Chambers Journal.