112 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



ledged on all hands to be of nervous origin. For example, fatigue and physical 

 exhaustion, and sudden or violent mental emotion, will, in many people, at once 

 excite an attack. The case is recorded of a gentleman in whom a very severe fit of 

 asthma was induced by his having, as he imagined, accidentally given his wife an over- 

 dose of medicine. In another instance mental emotion was, on the other hand, equally 

 efficacious in cutting short an attack. A gentleman, a confirmed asthmatic, was 

 suffering from an unusually bad attack of his complaint ; so bad indeed that he was 

 unable to move from his chair, or even to speak, except in monosyllables. He had 

 been suffering all day, and in the evening his sister was on the point of giving him 

 some ipecacuanha as an emetic, when she went off into hysterics, to the occurrence 

 of which she was subject. The suddenness of the attack so alarmed the brother 

 that he sprang from his chair, reeled to her assistance, and having placed her in a 

 more comfortable position, ran down two flights of stairs to procure the restoratives 

 that were usually administered. He then rushed up-stairs again; and having 

 applied the remedies, was delighted to find that his own attack had quite left him, 

 and that he was breathing as freely as ever he was in his life. The asthma, however, 

 gradually returned, and within an hour he was as bad as ever. Again, in illustration 

 of the influence of mental emotion on asthma, we may mention the case of a patient 

 who stated that when a little boy he found his disease a convenient immunity from 

 correction. " Don't scold me," he would say, if he had incurred his father's 

 displeasure, " or I shall have asthma ;" and so he would, as his fears were as well 

 founded as they were at times convenient. A doctor recently stated that he had had 

 patients come to him who lost their asthma the moment they entered his house to con- 

 sult him. Suddenly the difficulty of breathing had vanished, without any apparent 

 cause, except the mental perturbation at being within the precincts of the physician. 

 We see just the same thing in the toothache : the sight of the dentist's house will 

 often cure it. As an argument in favour of the nervous origin of asthma, we may 

 point out that many of its most popular remedies are such as act on the nervous 

 system ; tobacco and stramonium, for instance. Perhaps the effect of chloroform is, 

 of all remedies, the most striking, and at the same time the most illustrative of the 

 purely nervous nature of the affection : a whiff or two, and the asthma is gone ; a 

 dyspnoea that a few seconds before seemed to threaten life, is replaced by a 

 breathing calm and tranquil. 



The precursory symptoms of a fit of asthma vary greatly in different individuals ; 

 some people never experience any, but having been guilty of some imprudence, or the 

 regular period of an attack having recurred, they are seized suddenly with shortness 

 of breath. The majority of asthmatics, however, do know when an attack is coming on 

 by certain peculiar sensations. These symptoms generally present themselves on the 

 night previous to the attack, but in some cases a longer time before. Some people feel 

 very drowsy and sleepy, and are unable to keep their eyes open, and that without 

 having undergone any particular fatigue, or done anything to account for it. Others, 

 again, know by extreme wakefulness and unusual mental activity and buoyancy of 

 spirits that a paroxysm awaits them. At other times the precursory symptoms are 

 connected with the stomach, and consist of loss of appetite, flatulence, costiveness, 

 and certain peculiar uneasy sensations at the pit of the stomach. Many people 



