Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/157

133&#93; AST • ■servic s can be useful on such or similar occasions. We, therefore, think it our duty to corroborate this proposition still farther, by exhibit- ing a concise-- view of those causes, from -which that formidable d i may arise in different individuals. The principal of these are as follow : 1. Collections or congestions of blood in the lungs 5 from which there may not only arise the dry a.ithma, but likewise the Suffoca- tive Catahrh, -which is, strictly, an acute disease, occasioned bv an extravasation or effusion of blood into the cellular substance of the lungs, and of which we propose to treat in its proper place. 2. Ccngesri^ns of serous and pi- tuitous humours, arising gradually, and producing, in general, the hu- mid asthma : but if this collection of humours takes place suddenly, as is the case in inflammations of the chdst, they are then attended ith the suffocative catarrh. 3. Spawns in hypochondriacal and hysteric persons : which often lay the foundation of a dry, convul- sive asthma. 4. Worms in the first passages. 5. Stones in the gall bladder; aneurysms ; polypi, or concretions of grumous blood in the large fes- sels. 6. Asthma may likewise be a symptom of dropsv of the chest. 7. Serophulous, rheumatic, gouty, psoric, and scorbutic acrimony — all may occasion the asthma, either in the lungs themselves, or by consent of parts. 8. Noxious vapours arising from the decomposition of lead, or arse- nic 5 which generally cause a con- vulsive asthma. . The introduction of dust into the lungs, to which millers, masons, hatters, &c. are subject. AST [1, 10. Tubercles in the lungs, from which arises the dry asthma. 11. The abuse of ardent spirits. 12. A weak digestion, attended with great flatulency. 13. Every thing that oppresses the vessels, such as an expansion of the uterus, obesity or preter- natural fatness, aneurisms, fleshy and other tumors in the chest, a distended abdomen bv dropsy, ob- stipation-., fee. 1-1. General. debility, by which, respiration is frequently rendered difficult, without any other parti- cular cause. This affection may be ascertained from the circum- stance, when tlie patient ascends a number of steps with greater faci- lity than he is able to descend, be- cause the latter requires a greater degree of muscular effort than the former. What a variety of causes do we here behold — many others being reserved, as too abstruse for non- professional readers ; and who will be bold enough to pretend, that he has discovered a specific for the cure ol asthma ? Beside the remedies already pointed out, as proper for the ge- neral treatment, we shall here briefly observe, that in the perio- dical asthma, infusions of bitter herbs, such as wormwood, lesser centaur}', the blessed thistle, as well as gum ammoniac, vinegar and honey, acids in any form, nay, mixed with proportionate quanti- ties of laudanum, have been used with the best success. The exer- cise of riding on horseback is in- dispensably necessary. Changes of weather are very sensibly felt bv asthmatic persons, who, in ge- neral, cannot live with any comfort in die atmosphere of large cities, though some are to be found, who