Treatment.—In many cases a good dose of opening medicine, or an injection to unload the bowels, given at the very beginning, wonder fully relieves. Many remedies are used during the attack to relieve the spasm. Smoking ordi nary tobacco, or, better, stramonium (thorn apple), sometimes does so. The stramonium is put in a pipe along with tobacco or alone, and a few whiffs taken. Inhalation of chloro form is beneficial, but its administration must not be attempted by the patient without some competent person at hand. Nitrate of amyl has recently been largely used with some success. Five drops are placed on a hand kerchief, which is held over nose and month, and inhaled till the person feels giddiness in the head, and the face is flushed and the eyes red. It ought not to be used by full-blooded persons, and indeed by no one without competent advice, for it may produce un consciousness from the rush of blood to the bead. A patent medicine—Hinirod's cure—has proved very useful in many cases. It is a powder, and is burnt, the person inhaling sonic of the fumes. In the same way an asthmatic person will often find relief from burning in his room paper which has been dipped in a solution of saltpetre and then dried.' Relief is some times also to be had by taking a mixture con taining 10 grains iodide of potassium dissolved in a little water, with 10 drops sal volatile (aro matic spirits of ammonia), 10 drops spirits of ether, and 5 drops tincture of belladonna. This dose may be repeated every six hours. Further, 10 drops of tincture of belladonna, with water only, taken every two or three hours, are of great use in the attack. The dose should be reduced if any bad effects—excitement, &c.—arise. An American patent remedy, Tucker's Cure for Asthma, is, in the writer's experience, a more generally successful remedy than any other known to him. It consists of a liquid, vapour ized by an atomizer, a small bottle with an arrangement for producing a spray of such fineness that it does not wet. The tube is placed in the nostril, and two or three rapid squeezes given to the air-ball, the person inhal ing the while by the nostrils, and exhaling by the mouth. If the instrument is properly used, something like tine smoke issues by the mouth. Relief is produced almost immediately. Con
tinuance in the use of the remedy may, specially in the young, not only relieve but hinder the attacks. The asthmatic patient should do all be can to diminish his tendency to attacks by taking simple nourishing diet, by keeping the bowels regular, perhaps by an occasional dose of rhubarb to relieve the liver. During the intervals, also, 5 grains of iodide of potassium may be taken thrice daily in water, and may be persevered in if, after some time, it is found to benefit the patient. An asthmatic person should try to discover what sort of climate suits him.
No asthmatic should ever fail to have the condition of his nostrils carefully investigated as well as the state of his stomach, as a preliminary step to the determination of treatment.
(flay fever) is a kind of catarrh to which some persons, not many, are liable during 'the months of May, June, and July, and which is supposed to be excited by par ticks from new-mown hay and other flowering grasses entering the nostrils and air-tubes and setting up inflammation. Attacks have ever been induced in persons by dust from dried hay Dust from powdered ipecacuanha also produces the affection in some.
The symptoms are watering, redness, and itching of the eyes, irritation of the nostrils accompanied by violent sneezing and much (Hs, charge, and similar irritation of throat, witl cough, difficulty of breathing, tightness of tln chest, sometimes with copious spit, &c.
Treatment.—The best treatment la the avoid. ante of the exciting cause by the person going ti the seaside or to a place barren of grass during the months when the disease prevails. Tin wearing of a respirator made of a double fob. of cambric to intercept the irritating particle is suggested. Ray-asthma is clue to some nosy disorder even oftener than true asthma. Am irritable spot of the mucous membrane of tit nose is very often sufficient to ensure the re turn of an attack at the flowering season Touching such a spot with the electric cautery cocaine being previously applied to avoid pair will often be sufficient to stop an attack. Th. remedies in use for true asthma are also ap plicable. Many persons have found relief b; taking 3-5 drops of the liquor arsenicalis of th British Pharmacopoeia after each meal.