Dr. Byron Bramwell in his "Clinical Studies," Vol. I, page 107, has an interesting paragraph with regard to these curious asthmatic conditions which develop in the presence of animals of various kinds. He sums up many of the curious features of this affection as reported by various good observers. Many more people than we would be apt to think are affected by it. He says:
In some persons the smell of a horse or of a cat produces an attack of asthma. Some years ago I repeatedly saw a young gentleman who invariably had an attack of asthma if he went near a stable or a horse. He was so susceptible that he was unable to drive in a cab or a carriage; when traveling from place to place, while sending his traps from the station to the hotel in a cab, he himself was obliged to walk.
Dr. Goodhart mentions a similar instance which occurred in the practice of Prof. Clifford Allbutt. Dr. Goodhart also mentions a remarkable case of "cat asthma":
I have known of two cases of cat asthma. In one of them the existence of cats is the bane of life, for before accepting an invitation she is obliged first to ask, "Is there a cat?" [Footnote 32] An attack of urticaria and coryza followed by asthma has been noticed to come on within ten minutes of having stroked a cat. At other times, sitting in a room in which there was a cat, without any actual contact with it, was sufficient to produce a bad attack, beginning within ten minutes of entering the room.
[Footnote 32: A case of this kind came under observation as this book was nearly ready for the press. The patient, a young woman in an office, had to refuse a vacation with a wealthy friend in Florida, because she knew that friend could not be separated from her pet cats, five in number, and the patient would have been intensely miserable were she near them, so that even the joys of Florida in the winter did not make up for the constant, intolerable discomfort they would have caused her.]
There are two forms of this intolerance of a cat. One of them takes on the character of a dread and is discussed in the chapter on [Dreads]. The other is accompanied by dyspnea or asthma with a sense of discomfort and tightness of the chest that cannot be overcome. It is not merely an imagination, for sometimes even when they cannot see the cat, or at times when friends have been careful to exclude cats from the room, these people become impressed with the idea that a cat is near and a search usually shows that their impression is true, though just what was the means through which they came to know it is difficult to understand.
Dr. Weir Mitchell's review of the subject of "Cat Asthma and Allied Conditions" in a paper read before the Association of American Physicians brought out many curious details. There is no doubt about the power to recognize the presence of the unseen cat. Besides the respiratory oppression, some patients develop urticarial lesions and occasionally even conjunctivitis and a catarrhal condition of the nasal mucous membrane. These seem to be due to the direct irritant effect of animal emanations. As the symptoms of rose cold or hay fever have sometimes developed after the sight of an artificial rose, or even, it it said, the picture of a hay field, so, in some of these cases, the sight of a picture of a cat has produced at least some of these symptoms. Probably the most interesting feature of the affection is that the large cats, the tiger and the lion, do not have any effect on the patient. There seems to be no doubt, then, that the mind plays an important role in the matter and that relief must be secured through mental influence.
In some of these cases a careful searching of the past of the patient will show that there has been some terrifying incident connected with the cat. In one case in my own experience the patient's earliest recollection, and the first time that death was brought home to her, was when a favorite bird was killed by a cat. Ever after that she had a horror of the animals, the family cat had to be disposed of, and her family never had another. She used to suffer from a severe dyspnea at the sight of a cat and was sure that she could recognize its presence without having seen it. She mentioned a number of occasions on which that had been true. The very idea of living where a cat could come near her was appalling. She was sure that she was even waked by the mere propinquity of a cat if by any chance one got into her room at night, though without any noise.
A change in her material circumstances compelled her to teach in private families. Under these circumstances her cat detestation made difficulties for her. I suggested, since she had had no feeling toward cats before the bird incident, that probably her symptoms were due to suggestion and an acquired habit of mind and that she might by discipline overcome them. She was sure that would be impossible. With determined effort, however, and practice in withstanding her feelings in the presence of cats she finally learned to overcome practically all of her feelings so that though it still requires an effort she can even pick up a cat and stroke it. I have had several other patients with less marked forms of the affection who have by self-discipline overcome their feelings to a great degree. It is always well to search the past of these patients in order to find out whether there may not be a dominant idea derived from some unfortunate experience, which acts as an auto-suggestion in the production of their symptoms of constriction of the chest and sometimes even the recurrence of the swelling of the mucous membrane of the nose that produces difficulty of breathing. Whenever this can be found, contrary suggestion can be given and the patients can be persuaded to try, by frequently repeated auto-suggestion, to relieve themselves of the trouble.