Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1505.5

FRANCIS HOPKINS RAMADGE (1793-1867) Asthma, its species and complications, or, Researches into the pathology of disordered respiration, with remarks on the remedial treatment applicable to each variety : being a practical and theoretical review of this malady, considered in its simple form, and in connection with disease of the heart, catarrh, indigestion, &c. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, Paternoster Row 1835 1st vii, 360 pages, 6 leaves of plates, color illustrations 22 cm

First edition of one of the earliest English books on asthma and, according to the author, the first to propose definite recommendations concerning treatment. Ramadge was senior physician to the Infirmary for Asthma, Consumption and other Diseases of the Chest in London and by the time he published this book he was well acquainted with this condition. He had considerable experience with different methods of treatment. He states that his book deals largely with “treatment of the disease, in all its varying phases” rather than offering merely speculative accounts such as those found in previous books by both English and continental physicians. The chapters cover the appearance of the illness, treatment “during the paroxysm” as well as “in the intermission,” and considers the various kinds of complications. There are chapters on asthma “complicated with organic lesions of the heart and large vessels,” “complicated with diseases of the heart,” and in connection with hysteria. The discussion of treatment is supported by cases. The colored plates mainly depict pathological features of asthma seen at autopsy. Bedford notes that this book contains “a good account of the nervous heart, palpitation and left chest pain” (Library of cardiology, no. 276).

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