ASTHMA. 121 



porous and loose in texture, so as to soak up plenty of the solution. There is no 

 dilliculty in making the solution, for all you have to do is to put in just as much 

 nitre as the water will take up. Nitre-paper will keep for any length of time, 

 and will be none the worse for it. If it get damp, all you have to do is to put 

 it before the fire and dry it, and it will be ready for use in a few minutes. 



When nitre-paper prepared in the ordinary way fails, another kind of nitre-paper 

 will often succeed. This is very much stronger, and we have known cases in 

 which its action was truly wonderful. We don't know that you can buy it any- 

 where, so that you will have to make it yourself. We have made it dozens of 

 times, and it is really very little trouble. In the first place, you get half-a-dozen 

 sheets of ordinary red blotting-paper, and you cut this with a paper-knife into pieces 

 about six inches square. Then you take these pieces and make a number of little 

 piles of six of them, one on the top of the other, all over the table. You next take 

 a good-sized saucepan, half fill it with water, and put it on the fire to boil. You 

 must now get some saltpetre and chlorate of potash, and throw them into the boiling 

 water an equal quantity of each, till it will not take up any more. There is no 

 occasion to measure how much you put in. We usually throw in a big spoonful 

 of each alternately, giving it a stir if it does not seem inclined to dissolve. When 

 the water is saturated with the salts take the saucepan off the fire, put it on the 

 hob, and then take one of your piles of blotting-paper all six pieces and dip it in. 

 Directly it is wet through throw it on an old tray, or better still, on a piece of board 

 with holes in it, so that it may drain. You must treat all your piles of paper in 

 the same way. You will have to be rather quick in pulling them out of the hot 

 ealt solution, or you will scald your fingers. You may, perhaps, find it convenient 

 to use a small pair of tongs. The best way of drying the paper is to put it out 

 in the sun for an hour or two. In the absence of sun the kitchen fire forms a 

 very effectual substitute, only you must take care that a spark does not fly out and 

 set the whole of it on fire. Before the pieces of paper are quite dry, it is a good 

 plan to sprinkle them lightly with a little aromatic of some kind or other. We 

 generally use tincture of sumbul or spirits of camphor, but you can flavour to your 

 taste. The addition of the aromatic, we are inclined to think, is not a mere matter 

 of fancy, but really adds to the efficacy of the preparation. The nitre-paper so 

 prepared is as thick as cardboard. It of course consists of the six pieces of 

 blotting-paper, closely adherent, and covered all over with crystals of saltpetre and 

 chlorate of potash. For the sake of distinction we often speak of these thick 

 pieces of nitre-paper as "nitre-tablets." The way you use them is this: You 

 take a nitre-tablet and fold it across the middle so as to make it like a tent, or the 

 cover of a book. You then put it standing up in the fender, or on a piece of metal 

 of some kind or other, and light it at each end of the fold. It burns very quickly, 

 almost like a firework, forming a great deal of very dense smoke. In its com- 

 bustion it often shoots out a flame, some six or eight inches long, from each end, 

 so that you must be careful not to put it near the bed or the curtains, or anything 

 that would catch fire. It is not a good plan to put it on a plate, for it may crack 

 it The smoke often causes great drowsiness, and the patient goes to sleep almost 

 immediately, and nearly always passes the whole night without interruption. We 



