448 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



berty, or after it. It affects both sexes, but most frequently the 

 male. I have not observed it to be more frequent in one kind 

 of temperament than in another ; and it does not seem to de- 

 pend upon any general temperament of the whole body, but up- 

 on a particular constitution of the lungs alone. It frequently 

 attacks persons of a full habit ; but it hardly ever continues to 

 be repeated for some length of time without occasioning an ema- 

 ciation of the whole body. 



MCCCLXXV. The attacks of this disease are generally in 

 the night time, or towards the approach of night ; but there are 

 also some instances of their coming on in the course of the day. 

 At whatever time they come on, it is for the most part sudden- 

 ly, with a sense of tightness and stricture across the breast, and 

 a sense of straitness in the lungs impeding inspiration. The 

 person thus attacked, if in a horizontal situation, is immediately 

 obliged to get into somewhat of an erect posture, and requires 

 a free and cool air. The difficulty of breathing goes on for 

 some time increasing ; and both inspiration and expiration are 

 performed slowly, and with a wheezing noise. In violent fits, 

 speaking is difficult and uneasy. There is often some propen- 

 sity to coughing, but it can hardly be executed, 



MCCCLXXVI. These symptoms often continue for many 

 hours together, and particularly from midnight till the morning 

 is far advanced. Then commonly a remission takes place by 

 degrees ; the breathing becomes less laborious and more full, 

 so that the person can speak and cough with more ease ; and, if 

 the cough brings up some mucus, the remission becomes imme- 

 diately more considerable, and the person falls into a much 

 wished-for sleep. 



MCCCLXXVII. During these fits the pulse often continues 

 in its natural state ; but in some persons the fits are attended 

 with a frequency of pulse, and with some heat and thirst, as 

 marks of some degree of fever. If urine be voided at the be- 

 ginning of a fit, it is commonly in considerable quantity, and 

 with little colour or odour ; but, after the fit is over, the urine 

 voided is in the ordinary quantity, of a high colour, and some- 

 times deposites a sediment. In some persons, during the fit, 

 the face is a little flushed and turgid ; but more commonly it is 

 somewhat pale and shrunk. 



