Consumption Curable: Observations on the Treatment of Pulmonary Diseases

by Henry Congreve

In this peculiar calamitous and highly dangerous Cough, the object to be attained is a free expectoration, to dissolve and remove the phlegm, and to abate the fever. Emetics, which are often unwisely ordered, agitate the system, and aggravate the symptoms; blisters only irritate, without accomplishing the desired intention; and, in fact, the patient is too frequently abandoned to the chances of change of air, and strength of constitution, to sustain the shock. It will be a source of consolation to every anxious mother, that this valuable compound which operates so beneficially in Coughs, is also equally excellent in Hooping Cough; indeed, its balsamic, pectoral, expectorant, and emollient properties, render it peculiarly adapted to eradicate the worst stages of the complaint, for the reasons before advanced. It may be given in the quantity of a tea-spoonful, three or four times a day, in honey, or on lump sugar, as the urgency of the case demands. The contents of a 2s. 9d. bottle, seldom or ever fail to develope its specific qualities in such cases.

This disorder sometimes terminates in apoplexy and suffocation. In some, it lays the foundation for asthma and pulmonary complaints. It will, therefore, be manifest, that a remedy, which will remove the offending cause, should never be omitted.

Of the tough Phlegm, which usually precedes an attack of asthma.

Many individuals, especially those far advanced in life, are much subjected to a collection of tough phlegm, which adheres to the bronchial tube, or inner surface of the windpipe, in the morning, and renders their breathing most difficult and painful; occasioning hoarseness, and producing violent fits of coughing, until the matter is discharged. This affection is not, strictly speaking, a disease; and although it is most troublesome and disagreeable, as well as painful to its subject, and to others, there are but few persons who consult the physician for its removal.

This complaint should not, however, be neglected, for, by inattention to its early symptoms, it will be much increased, and often terminate in Asthma; and some have fallen a sacrifice to its consequences, by the rupture of a blood vessel, occasioned by violent straining. If it were asked of medical men, what medicine would cure this infirmity, and be a safe preventative to its return, the question would be with difficulty answered. No remedy could afford effectual relief, otherwise compounded than the Balsam before alluded to. The patient should have recourse to it on retiring to rest at night, and early in the morning, or on rising from bed; one or two tea-spoonsful in a little honey, or on lump sugar, will constitute the regular dose. Relief will be experienced from it the first day, and progressively increase, until the recovery is complete. It will, nevertheless, be advisable to take minute supplies occasionally, for a short period afterwards, to prevent a tendency to relapse: and if at any subsequent period, after the removal of the cold, the complaint again appear, the same course must be again adopted, and duly persevered in, until it is totally removed.

OF ASTHMA, OR DIFFICULTY OF BREATHING.

There are two distinct kinds of Asthma—one of which is denominated nervous or convulsive—the latter is not the disorder so prevalent in this country as the former. The true Asthma is a laborious breathing, wheezing, sense of suffocation, attended by anxiety, cough, and mucus expectoration. It is very frequent; and no disease is more distressing to the patient.

Asthma is a disease which usually attacks elderly people; and those who are subject to it, have frequent returns—for all the methods in common use are calculated only to promote relief in the present fit, not to produce a lasting cure. If the medical adviser be called in in the extremity of a fit, he bleeds his patient freely; and that practice is become too general, because it often affords immediate relief in the paroxysms, but the fits again return, and often with greater violence than before; and frequent renewals of this practice soon undermine and destroy the constitution.

The phenomena of Asthma arises from increased excitement of the branches of the eighth pair of nerves, distributed over the larynx, and the internal membrane of the wind-pipe, and bronchiæ, brought on by a certain condition of the atmosphere, probably with respect to electric matter: for, opposite states of the air, with regard to its temperature, density, or humidity, do not disorder asthmatic subjects, so much as easterly or north-easterly winds. In consequence of the excitement of the nerves of the larynx, &c., the respiratory muscles, particularly those which perform the functions of expiration, become affected by spasms, whereby the free admission of the irritating air into the lungs is promoted. This is manifest by the excessive paroxysms, very similar to that which ensues on an attack of Asthma, which immediately follows an artificial irritation, the membrane of the larynx. The suffocating sensation produced by a morsel of food lodging in the membrane in the act of swallowing (usually attributed by unprofessional persons to “the food going the wrong way,”) is of this nature. The muscles concerned in expiration immediately contract, to prevent the admission of an obnoxious article into the wind-pipe; and this state of muscles will continue many minutes: and, in asthmatics, whose nerves of the parts are morbidly irritable, it has continued many hours.

It would be incompatible with the design of this pamphlet, and perhaps superfluous to enter minutely into a description of what Asthma is—especially as no disease shows itself more distinctly. The individual, occasionally attacked by wheezing, difficulty of breathing, and tightness of the chest, need not be assured that he is asthmatical; but it will be a source of consolation to inform him, that his case is really curable, by this valuable medicine, as experience in the worst cases has amply confirmed. As the use of the Balsam is persevered in, the paroxysms abate, the attendant cough becomes freer, and is accompanied by gentle expectoration; and, in proportion to the increase of the cough and expectoration, the distressing symptoms decrease—a more free passage of air being now admitted to and from the lungs.