608 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



however, be carefully avoided, even at the risk of incurring the penal- 

 ties of social non-conformity. An asthmatic old Antwerp merchant 

 of my acquaintance used to retire to his gardenhugs, a little summer- 

 house at the farthest end of his garden, whenever his feelings became 

 unduly excited, and also after dinner, as he had noticed that an inter- 

 ruption of his siesta was apt to react on his lungs. One afternoon, 

 however, he had a visit from a commercial associate who had threat- 

 ened to break the partnership, but now came to lubricate matters and 

 tender a very acceptable peace-offering. At his return from the inter- 

 view Mynheer made no attempt to conceal his glee, but suddenly be- 

 came thoughtful and monosyllabic. " What's the matter ?" asked his 



broker, " are you afraid it's a trap ? " " No, no," said he, " X is 



all right, but " with a sigh " d n bim, anyhow ; it will cost me a 

 week's tussle with old Nick." "With the asthma? What ! the 

 mere excitement?" "Yes," he groaned, "the talk, the miserable for- 

 malities, and the tight necktie and right after dinner ! " 



Any waste of vital power may bring on a fit of spasmodic asthma, 

 and the aggravating effect of incontinence is so prompt and so unmis- 

 takable that experience generally suffices to correct a penchant to 

 errors in that respect. Like gout, asthma is a moral censor, but its 

 reproofs do not so often come too late. With an ordinary amount of 

 will-force, even persons of an inherited tendency to asthma may man- 

 age for years to keep its worst symptoms in abeyance. 



Among the palliatives of spasmodic asthma cold water ranks first. 

 A plunge-bath into a pond (or tub) of water, of a sufficiently low tem- 

 perature to produce a gasp and a shiver, rarely fails to break the sjDell 

 of the suffocating stricture. It is the most reliable remedy, for, un- 

 like chemical antispasmodics, it acts irrespective of precedents its 

 efficiency does not decrease with each subsequent application. After 

 the second or third time, " asthma-weeds " have to be used in almost 

 lethal doses before they produce any appreciable effect, though their 

 disagreeable after-effects are perceptible enough. For these weeds are 

 generally strong narcotic poisons. Tabac de Chine, or "Chinese to- 

 bacco," is a mixture of tobacco-leaves and inspissated opium. Stramo- 

 nium (Datura ferox) is as virulent as belladonna, and the smoking of 

 the leaves produces vertigo, heart-spasms, and violent headaches. It 

 does relieve asthma, on the principle that diseases yield to more se- 

 rious diseases. Thus the languor of dyspepsia can be temporarily 

 relieved by alcoholic stimulants, but the dose has to be steadily in- 

 creased, till the remedy becomes worse than the original evil. Such 

 household remedies as black coffee (swallowed by the quart) or 

 sulphur-and-vinegar fumes are liable to the same objection. They 

 help once or twice, and afterward only in monster doses. Coffee- 

 poisoning, which old habitues avoid by a very gradual increase of the 

 dose, is a frequent sequel of an asthma-cure by domestic narcotics. 

 The mediaeval physicians, with their penchant for heroic remedies, 



