On asthma : its pathology and treatment / by Henry Hyde Salter.

  • Henry Hyde Salter
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On asthma : its pathology and treatment / by Henry Hyde Salter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    401/500 (page 385)
    tickling of a hair, the blowing of the wind, any inconvenience or disarrangement of dress, the hitching of brambles, all interference, weight, or incumbrance, become quite intolerable. But the most conspicuous symptom is the asthma, which must always continue longer than the sneezing, since sneezing on such occa- sions always produces it, and when it has reached the worst it takes some time to subside. The asthma during these paroxysms is violent, with a feeling of tightness and suffocation; it is accompanied with a wheezing sound, and is followed by much mucus. These paroxysms of hay-asthma always exhibit the peculiar phenomenon of the itching of the chin; this itching, unlike the other symptoms of the hay-fever, is attendant only on the asthma, and belongs exclusively to it.* After all the symptoms have mostly subsided, which, if the paroxysm occur in the evening, seldom happens entirely before sleep, the throat remains sore, at least in appearance being red and vascular ; the edge of the palate is very red; and the parts contiguous somewhat swollen and undefined, and there is considerable mucous exudation. Always, after these attacks, there remains for some little time a liability to asthma from every slight cause, and an inclination to the short asthmatic cough. The asthma may recur on lying down in bed and disturb the early sleep, but this with me is not of common occurrence. During a good night's rest all is set to rights, and every symptom disappears, except those appearances which, were I not aware of the circumstances, would lead me to suppose I was recovering from one of those severe but short colds to which I am subject in the summer time;—the face is somewhat pale, the eyes stiff and injected, with consider- able enlargement of the carunculce, which are somewhat encum- bered with that kind of inspissated mucus which nurses call sleeping dust. The throat is sore, and there is a degree of stiffness and swelling about the palate and tonsils; and the lymphatic glands beneath the jaw frequently appear swollen and distinct, and feel about the size of acorns. If the paroxysm on the previous evening has been long and severe, there is a feeling of languor and debility, but this and all other indications disap- pear as the day advances. I have had attacks of hay-fever more frequently in the evening * This differs from the experience of a lady, an acquaintance of mine, who is a victim of hay-fever, and who, although her hay-fever symptoms are quite free from any admixture of asthma, sulfers grievously from this itching of the chin and between the shoulders, so that, to use her own expression, shecould tear the inside of her chin out. c c