The diet must be nutritious, cabonaceous, and of sufficient quantity. Beef, milk, rich cream, plenty of good butter, eggs, fish, wheat bread from unbolted flour, supply the appropriate alimentary substances for perfect nutrition and the maintenance of animal heat.
To overcome the modified form of inflammation in the bronchial tubes, all sources of irritation should be avoided, as the inhalation of dust, or excessively cold air. It is in the cure of severe and obstinate cases of this disease that Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery has achieved unparalleled success, and won the highest praise from those who have used it. Its value will generally be enhanced in treating this complaint by adding one-half a teaspoonful of the fluid extract of Veratrum Viride to each bottle. This can be added by any respectable druggist. Especially should it be thus modified if the pulse be accelerated so as to beat ninety or a hundred times in a minute. The "Golden Medical Discovery" should be taken in teaspoonful doses, repeated every two hours. When the cough is dry and hard, with no expectoration, it arises from irritation of some of the branches of the pneumogastric nerve, which this remedy will relieve. It may, however, be aided by inhaling the hot vapor of vinegar and water, or vapor from a decoction of hops, to which vinegar has been added.
The use of Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery should be persisted in, taking it in frequent doses, every two or three hours, and keeping up its use until the disease yields and is perfectly stamped out. Do not expect a formidable disease of perhaps weeks' or months' duration to be speedily cured. Chronic diseases are generally slow in their inception and development and can only be cured by gradual stages. Perseverance in treatment is required. Many invalids do not possess the strength of purpose—the will power—to continue the use of the "Golden Medical Discovery" long enough to receive its full benefits. It is worse than useless for such to commence its use, for without persistency it cannot be expected to cure such obstinate maladies as chronic bronchitis.
ASTHMA.
PHTHISIC.
One of the most distressing ailments with which the human family is afflicted is asthma. Its symptoms are not to be mistaken. Suddenly and without apparent provocation the patient experiences the greatest difficulty in breathing. When warning is given, there is usually a sense of fullness in the stomach, flatulence, languor, and general nervous irritability. The countenance is a picture of anxiety and horror. The difficulty of breathing increases and the struggle for air commences. Windows and doors are thrown open, fans used, and, utterly regardless of consequences, the sufferer passes the whole night in exposure and torture, even though the temperature be below zero. Fearing suffocation, the patient dare not lie down; he rushes to the window for air, rests his head upon a table or chair, or upon his hands, with the elbows upon the knees, jumps up suddenly and gasps and struggles for air. The eyes are prominent and the veins of the forehead distended with blood; sometimes the bowels are relaxed. The urine is colorless and is passed in copious quantities. This symptom indicates great excitement of the nervous system. The voice is hoarse, articulation difficult, breathing limited, noisy and wheezy. The wheezing is pathognomonic of the disease. It can only be confounded with croup, and then only in the young. In croup there is pain and difficulty in swallowing, fever and cough, which are usually absent in asthma. A severe paroxysm of asthma is very distressing to witness, and one unused to it might well suppose the sufferer to be in his last agonies. No definite limit can be assigned to the duration of the attack or of the disease. It may last but a few minutes, may endure for hours, or with slight remission continue for days. The condition of the patient may be for years as changeable as the pointings of the weather-vane. In fact, the atmosphere has much to do with the disease. With every approaching storm, with every cloud of dust, even the dust from sweeping a room, with every foul odor, and, in some more sensitive organizations, with even the perfume of flowers, a paroxysm is provoked. Truly he is a "child of circumstances," a veritable football upon the toes of every atmospheric disturbance.
UNPARALLELED SUCCESS.
Persons affected with asthma or phthisic are numerous. With such an amount of suffering in our midst is it not a marvel, if not a disgrace, that the medical profession of to-day endorse the opinions of a half century ago and pronounce it incurable, rather than make stupendous and laudable efforts to discover plans of medication that will result in certain and permanent cure? Almost single handed we undertook this field of investigation, and we take pleasure in reporting that our labors have been crowned with success. The large experience furnished us has led to the discovery of remedies for this distressing malady of more than ordinary efficacy. Through the agency of these means we have been enabled to cure hundreds, who had suffered untold tortures for twelve, fifteen, or twenty-five years. Some whom we have been successful in curing had suffered from childhood to middle and even old age. The treatment of asthma, or phthisic, still continues to be a prominent specialty at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.