SYMPTOMS OF DISEASES. 3 



jects of this disease; but very many examples occur of a make directly the 

 reverse of this, viz., tall and slender, being also attacked with apoplexy. 

 Remedy, page 131. 



ASTHMA.— Symptoms.— A painful difficulty of breathing, recurring at 

 intervals, with a sense of tightness across the breast; a wheezing cough, hard 

 at first, but towards the end of each paroxysm more free, and followed by the 

 discharge of a little mucus. The attacks of asthma are generally in the night- 

 time, though they sometimes come on in the course of the day ; and at what- 

 ever time they come on, it is for the most part suddenly, with a sense of 

 tightness across the breast, impeding respiration. The person, if in bed, is 

 obliged immediately to get up, and he requires the free admission of air. The 

 difficulty of breathing increases, and is performed slowly, and with a wheezing 

 noise. These symptoms sometimes continue for hours together; and a remis- 

 sion takes place by degrees; the breathing becomes less laborious, and the 

 patient speaks and coughs more easily ; and if there is something expectorated, 

 the remission is greater, and sleep comes on. In tlie morning, and through the 

 day, though the breathing is better than during the fit, it is not yet free from 

 difficulty; a degree of tightness is still felt, and a very slight motion of the 

 body is apt to bring back the paroxysm. In the evening the breathing is 

 worse, and about the same hour as on the former night, generally between 

 midnight and two o'clock, the same train of symptoms is renewed. After the 

 fits have recurred for several nights in this manner, they suffer more consider- 

 able remissions; and, for some time, asthmatics may be free from complaint; 

 but through the whole of life the paroxysms are ready to return, though in 

 different circumstances in different patients. 



Asthma seldom appears before the age of puberty, and seems to attack 

 men more frequently than women; and in persons of a full habit whom it 

 continues to attack, it commonly causes a great degree of emaciation. Though 

 it does not often destroy life in the paroxysms, it may become fatal by passing 

 into other diseases, as into consumption of the lungs, or by occasioning 

 dropsy; and many cases, which have appeared a common spasmodic asthma, 

 have been found at last to depend on organic diseases of the heart and great 



Causes. — Some have the fits of spasmodic asthma brought on by heat, 

 whether of the weather or of warm apartments; and frequently by warm 

 bathing. Some are hurt by cold and moist air, or by anything worn tight 

 about the breast, or by distension of the stomach from a full meal, or windy 

 diet; or from exercise hurrying the circulation of the blood. Sometimes the 

 disease is brought on by causes affecting the nervous system, as passions of the 

 mind; or by particular smells, or irritations of the lungs from smoke or dust. 

 Remedy, pages 200, 201. 



ATROVBY.— Symptoms. — A disease, of which a very prominent symp- 

 tom is wasting of the body, from deficiency of nourishment. It is well known 

 to the nurses in Scotland by the term Dinning. It is very common in children, 

 and proceeds in them from various causes; from teething, from acidity of the 



