Blisters arc in this complaint singularly useful, and there is no doubt of the propriety of applying them very near the back. They must often be repeated, and as soon as one has begun to discharge, another may be applied, as the stimulus of the cantharides appears to be chiefly useful. Cataplasms of garlic to the feet have been considered as very valuable assistants.

Expectorants are also of great importance, and the chief of these are the squill, the gum ammoniac, and the volatile alkali. Equal parts of the oily emulsion and lac ammoniac, to which is added as much of the tincture of squills as the stomach can bear, is a medicine of peculiar utility, and often will bring on expectoration in cases apparently desperate. The other expectorants are not of equal power; the inula will sometimes be useful when continued, and is adapted rather for the intervals than the urgent emergency of a paroxysm; and the asafaetida, whose powers as a carminative and antispasmodic have eclipsed its numerous other virtues, merits considerable commendation in the same view. Even in the convulsive kind it becomes an excellent vehicle for the constant laxative. The oliba-num, in many of its effects resembling the asafoetida, is highly useful, and seems to combine a tonic with its expectorant power.

Respecting the propriety of purges in the humoral asthma, authors have differed. If given in any considerable dose, they induce debility, and retard the expectoration; but we have generally found, that to procure about two motions daily, has been highly salutary. These must, however, be produced by the mildest laxatives.

There are some cases where humoral asthma is combined with hydrothorax, or indeed where the latter puts on the appearances of the former. In these circumstances we have fortunately an active medicine, adapted to both diseases; viz. the squills. The distinction is, however, necessary, as the hydrothorax requires more active laxatives. In this disease, the hydropic diathesis is more conspicuous. The urine is scanty; the breathing, though oppressed, is not so violently obstructed as in asthma; the dyspnoea continues with less change; the lips are livid, and the whole face more dark and swollen. The sleep is interrupted by sense of suffocation, and fainting recurs on the slightest motion. In such circumstances, diuretics and active laxatives are the only remedies.

Of the diuretics, the squill is the most powerful; but some of the more stimulating kinds are frequently useful; and great advantages are often obtained by the oil of juniper, or the oil of turpentine. These seem also to act as expectorants; and the balsam Peru, both as an expectorant, a stimulant, and a tonic, when the more violent urgent symptoms have disappeared, is an excellent medicine. In the intervals of this disease there is no room for the bark, as it is too astringent, except where the asthma is of the gouty kind. In other species, the cascarilla, -the quassia, the cortex salicis latifoliae, the oak, or the angustura bark, may be given as a tonic. But, above all, it is necessary to keep up the determination to the surface, to avoid cold and damps of every kind, night air, and every cause of debility.

The asthma, in some instances, ends in a partial palsy; in others, in some species of dropsy; sometimes, though not often, the patient is suddenly suffocated. This accident, when it happens, hath for its cause a polypus in the lungs; and instances have occurred of its ending in an inflammation of those organs.

See Aretaeus. Dr. Dover. Sir John Floyer on the Asthma. Cullen's First Lines,-edit. iv. vol. iii. Withers on the Asthma. Dr. Ryan on the History and Cure of Asthma. Hoffman on Convulsive Asthma. Bree on Disordered Respiration. Akenside in the London Medical Transactions, vol. i.

Asthma spasmodicum infantum. The difficulty of breathing, which so often attacks during the period of infancy, is a disease of peculiar danger, and its different kinds are not easily discriminated. The suffocations from cold and teething are generally known by the fever attending, and the period of life, as well as the swelling of the gums. The difficulty of distinction chiefly lies between the spasmodic asthma, and cynan-che stridula. The inconvenience has been greater, since, from the resemblance of the symptoms, remedies have been celebrated as successful in croup, which were never used in the disease; and the less experienced practitioner, trusting to them, has felt the severest disappointment. The distinction indeed is not easy, nor does it admit of explanation. The peculiar sound of the croupy breathing, which is known only from experience, decides the question. The sound of the asthmatic breathing is less shrill, and generally accompanied with some wheezing.

The remedies for the spasmodic asthma of children require the utmost activity in their administration. A blister must be immediately applied to the breast or back; an active emetic of tartarised antimony quickly given, in a dose that will secure its effects, and probably occasion also some discharge by stool. A warm bath will often prove advantageous; and the asafoetida,given with tinctura opii in a clyster, after some motions have been procured, either by the emetic tartar, an active clyster, or a dose of calomel, will relieve very effectually the spasm. To a child of two years old, two scruples of asafoetida may be given in a clyster, dissolved in two ounces of warm water, with thirty or forty drops of the tincture of opium; and this may be repeated in four or six hours, according to the exigency of the complaint.

Dr. Millar, in the spasmodie asthma of children and the hooping cough, advises the asafoetida internally; and adds, that children are soon reconciled to the taste, and even grow fond of it. This may be true, but we have not been so fortunate as to meet with such admirers of the garlic flavour. Cataplasms of garlic, however, applied to the feet, have been often advantageous.

A Stites Glandulosi,(from ad, and sto, to stand near). A name of the prostate glands, because they are situated near the bladder. See Parastatae. Astra Galo, Astragaloides, (from and likeness'). See Orobus.