The Treatment of Asthma

Abstract

Eberle, a Philadelphia physician, in 1830, defined asthma¹ as a "paroxysmal affection of the respiratory organs, characterized by a great difficulty of breathing, tightness across the breast, and a sense of impending suffocation, without fever or local inflammation." In modern times, asthma is still defined in clinical terms, without mention of cause, as a disease characterized by increased responsiveness of the airways to various stimuli, manifested by slowing of forced expiration, which changes in severity either spontaneously or as a result of therapy.² Extrinsic asthma is believed to occur as a result of inhalation, or less often ingestion, of an . . .