RELIEVING ASTHMATIC ATTACKS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIEVING ASTHMATIC ATTACKS.

In his hygienic lectures Dr. David 11. Reeder makes the following interesting suggestions on the relief of a person suffering from asthma:—

Let us look, says he, at one or more of the prominent matters that form thei great features in a case of asthma. Let the first tiling- be the attitude of. the sufferer. This is very remarkable. In almost all other illnesses relief is more or less experienced on lying down. In this illness Ihe maintenance of that position is impossible. The person afflicted with asthma must sit up night and day. He cannot even have his lower limbs placed horizontally. These must hang clown, or rest on a stool, or on the floor. His head cannot be laid down, even in the back of his easy chair, nor can it be kept erect; it must be bent forward, so that it may hang on the breast, or on something- supporting it. The arms must be in the position in which the least possible eilort is required to keep them. If sleep is secured at all iii a bad case of asthma, *t is in a position of this kind. Now, can anything be learned from this? Most assuredly. Evidently it is not the circulation of the blood which is at fault in such a case. There was a time when persons afflicted with this disease were largely bled from the arm; that is condemned now. But how do we know that it is not the circulation of the blood which causes the trouble in asthma? By the fact that the attitude that is alone endurable is not the most favourable to circulation, and that the attitude which is-most favourable to a free circulation is unendurable. . Our minds are, therefore, directed away from ihe heart and all matters of mere circulation. Instead, let us examine the muscular power and nerve. The position in which a patient with this disease places himself is that in which the greatest possible release is given to the muscles of the whole body, and in which the greatest possible force is spared for the muscles of respiration. These muscles somehow have so lost their force that they require to hSive the whole muscular system laid under contribution in order that they may work at all. Somehow this state of things has been brought around, the whole store of muscular power must be directed toward breathing, or that work cannot be carried on. That same muscular force may be adundant in every other direction in the body, but its flow in the breathingorgans is so deficient that enough to live with can be had in these only when ail other exertions are suspended and this only carried on.

This leads, in fact, to the very core of the subject, and a guide is 'found in the mere attitude of the sufferer. How is it to point to a remedy? When you find a person under a violent paroxysm of asthma, place the left ami on the breast, while with the right hand rub down the spine between the shoulders so as to excite the respiratingr nerves at their roots to increased action. The effect will be instantly felt in relief of breathing1, and in a quarter of an hour the attack may be entirely overcome and the patient breathing- freely. How can this result be accounted "for? Simply iv this way; The nerves that give motive power to the respiratory muscles spring- from the spinal cord between the shoulders. These nerves ceased to act with force enough for breathing' in a healthful degree. The rubbing- (with the points of the fingers chiefly) roused them to increased action, and the current of force soon tells that it is renewed. ■So very light a remedy as this has given a compfete deliverance in asthma Avhen the case was not of very long standing, nor of the worst character. But Aye have seen the very worst of cases yield at once to this remedy for the time. It is necessary to remark that the rubbing is of a peculiar character, but may be done by anyone who is careful to master it. It will certainly not be done by a person who despises all such remedies; but the truly kind heart will not do that in the presence of suffering. For example, it is not the rubbing of the skin that is wanted You may rub that till it is sore and only do harm. Neither is it the rubbing of the back bone that is wanted. It is such movement down along both sides of the bone as makes the nerves passing thence to the respiratory organs put on increased action. It can be done even above the clothing if that is soft, flexible, and thin. But when the case is severe and does not yield to such slight efforts, it is necessary to rub nearer the centres to be effective. Then some easy medium is needed so that the motion of the fingers may pass more easily to the roots of the

nerves to be acted on. If the patient is ordinarily warm, nothing it(better for this than cold water. Ha^e a basin of this at hand. Dip the fingers repeatedly in this, and rub very gently , and so as to move under the skin J rather than on its surface I his oives something like a miraculous relief in such cases as are now before us When the water cools too much, and the patient is apt to tire of it, dry it off at once, and take a little fresh olive oil warmed. Rub with that for a short time, and you will find considerable increase of relief. Giving rest as desired, and renewing the rubbing also as desired, you will find that very trying cases of asthma are wonderfully relieved.