CHAPTER XI. ON ASTHMA.
IF from running, gymnastic exercises, or any other work, the
breathing become difficult, it is called
Asthma (
ἆσθμα); and
the disease
Orthopnœa (
ὀρθόπνοια) is also called Asthma, for in
the paroxysms the patients also pant for breath. The disease
is called
Orthopnœa, because it is only when in an erect position
(
ὀρθίῳ σχήματι) that they breathe freely; for when reclined
there is a sense of suffocation. From the confinement in the
breathing, the name
Orthopnœa is derived. For the patient
sits erect on account of the breathing; and, if reclined, there is
danger of being suffocated.
The lungs suffer, and the parts which assist in respiration,
namely the diaphragm and thorax, sympathise with them.
But if the heart be affected, the patient could not stand out
long, for in it is the origin of respiration and of life.
The cause is a coldness and humidity of the spirit (
pneuma);
but the
materiel is a thick and viscid humour. Women are more
subject to the disease than men, because they are humid and
cold. Children recover more readily than these, for nature in
the increase is very powerful to heat. Men, if they do not
readily suffer from the disease, die of it more speedily. There
is a postponement of death to those in whom the lungs are
warmed and heated in the exercise of their trade, from
being wrapped in wool, such as the workers in gypsum, or
braziers, or blacksmiths, or the heaters of baths.
The symptoms of its approach are heaviness of the chest;
sluggishness to one's accustomed work, and to every other
exertion; difficulty of breathing in running or on a steep
road; they are hoarse and troubled with cough; flatulence
and extraordinary evacuations in the hypochondriac region;
restlessness; heat at night small and imperceptible; nose sharp
and ready for respiration.
But if the evil gradually get worse, the cheeks are ruddy;
eyes protuberant, as if from strangulation; a
a râle during the
waking state, but the evil much worse in sleep; voice liquid
and without resonance; a desire of much and of cold air;
they eagerly go into the open air, since no house sufficeth for
their respiration; they breathe standing, as if desiring to draw
in all the air which they possibly can inhale; and, in their
want of air, they also open the mouth as if thus to enjoy the
more of it; pale in the countenance, except the cheeks, which
are ruddy; sweat about the forehead and clavicles; cough
incessant and laborious; expectoration small, thin, cold, resembling
the efflorescence of foam; neck swells with the inflation
of the breath (
pneuma); the præcordia retracted; pulse small,
dense, compressed; legs slender: and if these symptoms increase,
they sometimes produce suffocation, after the form of
epilepsy.
But if it takes a favourable turn, cough more protracted
and rarer; a more copious expectoration of more fluid matters;
discharges from the bowels plentiful and watery; secretion of
urine copious, although unattended with sediment; voice
louder; sleep sufficient; relaxation of the præcordia; sometimes
a pain comes into the back during the remission; panting
rare, soft, hoarse. Thus they escape a fatal termination. But,
during the remissions, although they may walk about erect,
they bear the traces of the affection.
