ASTHMA. 119 



many people habitually smoke, that they find a difficulty in getting themselves 

 thoroughly under its influence. It is probably not a matter of any great importance 

 in what form the tobacco is used, but on the whole we should recommend the pipe 

 in preference to a cigar. A pipe has the advantage of being of more certain and 

 uniform strength. Bird's-eye is very commonly used, as being a mild tobacco, and 

 one but little likely to produce collapse. Shag and other strong tobaccos should be 

 used by non-smokers with a certain amount of caution, as they are apt to cause very 

 great prostration. In the case of ladies or children, a few whiffs at a mild cigarette. 

 will often succeed admirably. 



Stramonium or thorn-apple often answers well when tobacco has proved useless. 

 and it is regarded by many as one of the best remedies for asthma. The dri'i 

 leaves are broken up, and either made into cigarettes or smoked in a pipe. Very 

 often it calms the paroxysm like magic. One man, who had been a sufferer from 

 asthma for many years, declared that since he had used stramonium his attacks had 

 lost half their terror, for he knew he could always cut them short in a minute. 

 People often say that stramonium is very uncertain in its action, but in the majority 

 of cases it will be found to succeed if attention be paid to two or three little matters 

 of detail. In the first place, you must have your leaves good ; those you buy at the 

 shops have often lost half their virtues. If you live in the country, you should grow 

 your own stramonium, or, if a town-dweller, get some country friend to undertake 

 this kind office for you. One patient stated that, while he received great benefit 

 from stramonium grown and dried by a relative of his, that which he obtained 

 at the shops did him no good whatever. Grow your own stramonium by all means, 

 if you possibly can. It will grow almost anywhere, and without the slightest 

 trouble. Then there is another point stramonium will cut short an incipient 

 attack, whilst it has comparatively little power over one that has been thoroughly 

 established The great thing is to resort to it in time; and, as the patient 

 is generally awoke from his sleep by the paroxysm, he should put his pipe, already 

 filled, with the means of lighting it, by his bedside over-night, so that when the time 

 comes for using it not a moment may be lost. In many cases, it is a good plan 

 to smoke a pipe of stramonium at bedtime, with the view of warding off an attack. 

 Many people think that it does even more in the way of prevention than cure, 

 and obtain greater benefit from the long-continued practice of smoking a pipe of 

 it the last thing at night, whether an attack is threatening or not, than by waiting 

 until a paroxysm comes on. 



Some people derive considerable benefit from inhaling stramonium smoke. They 

 do not simply take the smoke into the mouth and puff it out again in the ordinary 

 way, but draw it well into the lungs. Many people who cannot inhale the hot 

 smoke, manage to take it when cold without the slightest difficulty. They smoke 

 the stramonium like tobacco, puff the smoke into a tumbler, and then inhale it. 

 The seeds of the stramonium are much more powerful than the leaves ; and many 

 people who have found the latter almost worthless, have come to regard the former 

 as a most efficient and powerful remedy. The effects of the seeds are so marked, 

 that a certain amount of care is necessary in using them, and they should be smoked 

 in very small and gradually-increasing quantities. In some cases, benefit might be 



