IX. Violent asthmatic fits, occasioned by the effluvia of Ipecacoanha

Mrs. S. of Stamfordham, in Northumberland, married a person of the medical faculty in the year 1759, being then about twenty-six years of age. She had been always remarkably healthy before that period, and quite free from all nervous or other complaints, except a trifling nervous head-ach that used to affect her temples and forehead, sometimes for a night or so, about the time of her menstruation. The first year or two after marriage she enjoyed her usual good health and spirits in general; but at times she was afflicted with a very troublesome shortness of breathing, attended with a remarkable stricture about her throat and breast, and with a particular kind of wheezing noise. These fits came on very suddenly, and without any previous cause that at first could be assigned; and were often so violent as to threaten immediate suffocation.