124 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



failures ; but it is well worth trying. We have never known it produce any un- 

 pleasant symptoms. It is a remedy as yet not at all generally known, but it may be 

 obtained through any of the leading London or provincial chemists. 



Having considered in detail the different remedies used in the treatment of 

 asthma, we will now pause for a moment, and just think over what you should do if 

 suddenly seized with an attack. In the first place, can you account for it in any 

 way 1 Do you know of anything that could have brought it on ? Are your bowels 

 confined 1 or have you been taking anything indigestible ? If your bowels are at 

 fault get them cleared out at once. Take a seidlitz powder, or use an injection. The 

 latter is preferable, because it is so speedy in its action. If the stomach is overloaded, 

 you must relieve yourself by an emetic : a table-spoonful of ipecacuanha wine, aided 

 by a draught or two of warm water, will answer your purpose. If neither your 

 bowels nor your stomach is at fault, is there anything in the air that is answerable 

 for it 1 Has anybody been burning sulphur matches, or anything of that kind I Do 

 you smell anything wrong 1 Is there any hay-making going on 1 Can it be that 1 

 Has anybody been having anything to do with ipecacuanha powder ? It is very 

 important to find out the exciting cause ; for if this continues in operation, no amount 

 of treatment will do any good. Do you think it is a question of locality ? Do you 

 always have an attack when you come here 1 If it is a question of locality, or if 

 there is something acting as an exciting cause that cannot be removed as, for 

 example, a hay-field the sooner you get away from it the better : order a cab, or 

 your carriage, or whatever it may be; make them carry you down-stairs if necessary, 

 but get away without a moment's delay. It is very likely you will get all right 

 before you have gone a couple of miles, always supposing that it is a local cause that 

 has originated it. 



It is a great thing to place yourself in as good a position as possible during an 

 attack. If in bed get up, bolster yourself up in an arm-chair in front of a table of a 

 convenient height, with a pillow on it, on which you may rest yov.r elbows and 

 throw yourself forward. It is really astonishing how much comfort this will often 

 give; it not only actually relieves the breathing, but disposes the spasm to yield. 

 If the breathing is really so bad that it is impossible for you to sit down, the only 

 thing is to make the same arrangements adapted to a standing posture. 



If, however, the spasm still persist, the only thing is to have recourse to one of 

 the remedies we have mentioned, or to try several of them in succession. In the 

 choice of a remedy you will be more or less influenced by your former experience. 

 You probably know better than anybody what will suit your attack and what will not. 

 Few asthmatics suffer long from their complaint without discovering what particular 

 remedy is most efficacious in their case, and in this respect asthma displays such 

 caprice that there is no better guide than the patient's own experience. 



"We must now say a word or two respecting the dietetic treatment of asthma. 

 Most asthmatics are more or less dyspeptic, and, as has been very truly said, in no 

 direction is asthma more accessible than through the stomach. Even when, as in 

 many cases, the asthmatic does not suffer from the severer forms of dyspepsia, it will 

 be found that the stomach is irritable and the digestion capricious and irregular. 

 The presence of food in the stomach at bed-time is a potent exciter of the paroxysm 



