AUTHOR’S REPRINT 
Asthma 
Etiology and Treatment 
BY J. W. HUNTER, M. D. 
LMember of American Medical Association, Mississippi Valley Medical Association, 
Texas State Medical Association, Central Texas Medical 
Association, and Waco Medical Society.] Asthma.—Etiology and Treatment.* 
BY J. W. HUNTER, M. D., WACO, TEXAS. 
[Member ol American Medical Association, Mississippi Valley Medical Association, Texas 
State Medical Association, Central Texas Medical Association, and Waco Medical 
Society.] 
For one to become convinced that there does not exist a 
consensus of opinion among medical men regarding the etiology 
of asthma, he has only to read standard authors upon the subject. 
All writers agree that there is a neurotic element. Some writers 
say that it is a true neurosis, that there is a spa'.--a of the bron- 
chial muscles; others say, instead of such spasm, there exists 
pneumogastric or vaso-motor innervation, resulting in turgescence 
of the bronchial mucous membrane. Williams advocated the 
neurotic theory, based upon experimentation, and many have 
accepted the theory he advanced. 
When Traub wrote of hyperaemia, Clark of diffused hypermic 
swelling, and Webber of vaso-motor turgescence, many accepted 
the theories of these masters in medicine ; still, other theories 
have been advanced, in order to reconcile certain cases to certain 
causes, which were observed, and which were apparently absolute 
factors in the development of special cases. So various are the 
causes that have been brought forward as conducive to the 
development of asthma that classifications ha/e been formulated, 
which cover, or will admit most of the factors claimed by various 
observers, not excluding the theory of Haig that the causative 
factor is uric acid in the blood and the high arterial tension it 
produces. Modern classification, based upon the theories already 
advanced, is divided into the direct and the indirect, the former 
referring to existing causes acting directly upon the bronchial 
mucosa, and the latter, which is indirect, by a more circuitous 
route through the blood or nervous system. Among the direct 
causes we find placed, dust, chemical vapors, animal emanations, 
etc. Among the indirect causes we find first, through the ner- 
vous system (centric-excitomotor); second, indirect through the 
blood by gout, syphilis, skin diseases, renal diseases, etc., and 
last, but not least, the uric acid theory which I present to you 
to-day, and which I shall endeavor to sustain by reference to 
personal observation as well as the observations of many pro- 
fessional friends whom I have endeavored to interest in the subject. 
* Read before Central Texas Medical Association at Hillsboro, Texas, on the nth of 
January, 1898. Three years ago I read a paper before the State Medical 
Association of Texas, and urged attention to uric acid as a potent 
factor, if it was not indeed the main or principal cause of asthma, 
and suggested a certain line of treatment, based upon the theory 
advanced. The paper referred to was the first one in America 
in which this theory was advocated solely as the etiological factor 
of the disease. Tis true that Dr. Conklin, of Michigan, had 
presented to the Medical Society of his State a paper upon the 
uric acid diathesis, and incidentally referred to the subject of 
asthma, in which paper he quoted from Haig. Of this paper 
however I had no knowledge until after I had given my paper to 
the profession, as my information came through Dr. Conklin 
himself, who kh dly sent me a copy of his paper after seeing mine. 
To Dr. Hicks of San Antonio, Texas, I accorded the credit of 
having suggested to me the uric acid theory of asthma, and before 
he or I either had seen any literature upon the subject. Dr. 
Hicks related-to me these facts, which led to the conclusions al- 
ready stated: after treating two cases of asthma for two years 
with unsatisfactory results, he placed the patients on a prescription 
of I grain of caffeine, 5 grains carbonate of lithia, and 10 grains 
each of bi carbonate of potash and soda, dispensed in granular 
effervescent form, and known to the profession as “Alkalithia.” 
Having gotten the history of rheumatic gout previous to the 
asthma, he was induced to put the patient on this treatment. On 
the theory that uric acid caused the rheumatic gout, he put them 
on this treatment simply as a means of diagnosis, but, to his utter 
astonishment, he cured his cases. Dr. Hicks’ revelation to me 
induced me to think and investigate the subject, and to call the 
attention of my professional friends throughout the State to the 
remedy, and to urge trial of the treatment so highly successful in 
the hands of Dr. Hicks. In less than three months, fifty odd 
physicians in the State were treating asthmatic cases on the uric 
acid theory, and by the medicinal means—Alkalithia—to which 
their attention had been directed. Many of these physicians were 
kind enough to give me memoranda of the results occurring 
under their observation, which were so gratifying and successful, 
that I conceived it a duty due to the profession and suffering 
asthmatics to bring the facts before the profession, and without 
ever having seen any literature upon the subject, began the prep- 
aration of the paper already referred to, and which was read at 
the State Medical Association at Dallas, in 1895. I selected ten 
average cases, eight successful and two unsuccessful, from the 
report of the fifty cases. I have followed the history of four of 
these eight cases, and up to this writing, now nearly three years, 
2 these cases have remained free from asthmatic seizures. Dr. 
Momand, of Dallas, one of the four cases referred to, and who 
had been an asthmatic for fifty years, said to me at the meeting 
of the North Texas Medical Association last month in Dallas, 
that he had not had an attack of asthma in nearly three years. 
The distinguished surgeon Dr. H. W. Brown, of Waco, had 
treated two of the four cases in persons of old men, asthma com- 
plicated with rheumatism, and who are now living in Waco, and 
have had no return of the disease since treatment. Dr. Marvin 
L. Graves told me a few days ago of a case cured by this treat- 
ment nearly three years ago, and no return. I could refer to 
many cases benefited or cured by the adoption of a therapy prop- 
erly selected, which was based upon the theory so ably advocated 
by Haig, his predecessors and successors. We have other dis- 
eases besides asthma, doubtless, based upon the uric acid diathesis, 
occurring independently or in alternation with asthma, as rheuma- 
tism, eczema, Reynaud’s disease, psoriasis, pyorrhea alveolaris, 
nephritic, cystic, urethral, and other disorders, which when treated 
upon the uric acid theory with Alkalithia give good results. ’Tis 
true there have been failures; we have no specifics in our arma- 
mentarium ; but fewer failures would have resulted, I am satisfied, 
had the cases been properly differentiated, or had the treatment 
been continued a sufficient length of time. 
Now, gentlemen, I present these facts in order to open the 
discussion of the causation and treatment of asthma. I present 
only one theory, which I place in the indirect class of the modern 
classification I have given. I have said nothing of the various 
remedies suggested for the treatment of asthma, as the many text- 
books teach, and many gentlemen here resort to, who have no 
experience with the treatment based upon the uric acid theory, 
and the arterial tension therewith connected. I could give plau- 
sible theories, with the assistance of Haig, to show you that many 
cases of asthma, supposed to be due to causes in the direct class, 
could reasonably be considered in a chemical and physio-chemical 
sense as adding to the indirect cause by aiding in the increase of 
uric acid in the blood. I have referred you for treatment to only 
one combination as having been used in the treatment based 
upon the uric acid theory, that of caffeine, lithia, potash and 
soda, as above. Now, it is well established that when these 
agents are given in conjunction with a solution of carbonic acid, 
better results will be had, and as the physician in his office, nor 
the druggist in his store, is rarely prepared to add an effervescent 
property to your prescription in candor and honesty, I direct 
your attention to the combination, ready for administration, and 
3 known as Alkalithia, and upon which combination, and under 
which name, the cases here referred to were treated, and with 
the same remedy many cases are now being treated by intelligent 
physicians throughout the length and breadth of our country. 
DISCUSSION. 
Dr. W. E. Menefee, Cleburne.—Mr. President, I have not 
thought about asthma for a long while; in fact, I don’t think I 
know much about it. I have treated quite a number of cases of 
asthma with quite a number of remedies; I might say 1 have 
cured quite a number of cases, but they have never remained 
cured. In fact, I regard asthma as more of a condition than a 
real disease, and' often an attack of asthma is brought on by 
some complication. I have tried the doctor’s Alkalithia treat- 
ment in several instances—I don’t know whether I tried it 
sufficiently or not—and after some time the patients would get 
tired of it, and probably the next time they would have asthma 
I would resort to something else. They would get over it, and 
then have asthma again. I have never cured a case that re- 
mained cured, and now I have got so when I am called to a case 
of asthma I study the surroundings of that patient and try to 
find out what has brought on the asthma, and remove the cause 
if possible. Sometimes I do it with one thing and sometimes 
with another, and sometimes the patient gets well for the present, 
but as to curing a case of asthma and having that case remain 
cured, I have never done so yet; and I don’t think I have ever 
treated a case of asthma that the patient didn’t continue to have 
asthma occasionally. I have one patient in my practice now 
whom I have recently treated for what I would term bronchial 
asthma; we treat it as a common cold, and in a few days the 
asthma disappears and the patient returns to health, to be again 
attacked at the next period, or the first time he takes a severe 
cold. I have one patient w ho in the fall of the year, when the 
first north winds come, always has asthma; during the first two 
or three northers, he will have asthma, and after they pass, he 
will probably go through the balance of the winter without a 
return of asthma, and be in perfect health before and after. So, 
I don’t know much about asthma; I don’t know what to say 
about it, so I believe I will stop and let the others talk it over, 
and probably I will learn something. 
*Dr. H. W. Brown, Waco.—Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, 
if you will allow me, an outsider, to talk, I will say that I was 
very glad to hear the doctor’s remarks. The doctor, as it 
*Ex-President Texas State Medical Association and ex-Vice-President of the American 
Medical Association. 
4 occurs to me, really misunderstands, for the doctor did not 
mean to say that these cases were permanently cured in any 
instance. The cases that he refers to, that at his suggestion I 
treated and put under his Alkalithia treatment three or four years 
ago; these cases still take the Alkalithia once in a while as they 
feel the necessity. Of course, if it depends upon that condition 
of the blood described so succinctly and carefully, which I believe 
it does in many instances, that condition of the blood cannot be 
permanently changed, but is subject to all the influences and 
changes that the blood is ever subject to, and of course this 
asthma would recur under similar circumstances, with the 
indiscretions of diet and exposure. If the blood is loaded with 
the lithic or uric acids, one of the sources as mentioned, and the 
excretory system is able to carry it off successfully for a while, 
then other causes, a cold spell or a damp spell, or some other 
accident, lowers the vitality of the body, and of course the asthma 
presents itself again. I want to mention, in these two cases that 
Dr. Hunter refers to, these gentlemen told me but a short time 
ago, that it is one of the most wonderful relief remedies they 
have ever seen, but every once in a while they have to recur to 
it. I always will say that asthma cannot be cured any more 
than bronchitis ora bad cold or catarrh. Catarrh can be just as 
easily cured permanently as asthma; I never pretend to do 
that. But I want to say the doctor is an enthusiast upon the 
subject, first introduced it to my notice, and had the kindness to 
allow me to study Haig’s work a year or two ago; but for three 
or four years I have abandoned medicine and tried to think as 
little about it as I possibly could. On that occasion however I 
began to investigate and think, for the sake of the sympathy I 
felt for some of my suffering friends, and I have tried Alkalithia 
in those cases, and since then in several other instances. I 
believe it is one of the best combinations to secure that solution 
of the Alkalies in the blood and thus neutralize and eliminate the 
uric acid therefrom. I believe Alkalithia is one of the best 
combinations I have ever used, and I don’t think too much can 
be said of it in that direction. The doctor, I am sure, is one of 
the most careful, thorough and painstaking physicians I ever 
saw; he has studied the matter thoroughly, and although it 
might seem as if he was interested in the sale of Alkalithia, of 
which some have accused him, I want to exonerate him from any 
such charge as that, because I do know that the opinion he 
expresses in this paper is his sincere and honest conviction. I know, 
gentlemen, that he is free from that sordid sentiment and feeling 
that might, perhaps, under other circumstances attach to one. 
5 I want to say that much in behalf of my old friend, because I 
know him, and know his kindness of feeling, and know how care- 
fully he has investigated those subjects, and I know, too, the good 
effects of the remedy he suggests in the cases I have tried it in; 
but I don’t profess to make any permanent cures; nothing of that 
kind. No disease of that class can be assumed to be permanently 
cured. That is a functional disease, a disease dejxmdent upon a 
condition of the blood in the system; and if it is cured as sound 
as anything can be cured to-day, in a week it may recur. 
Dr. Fanny Leake, of Austin.—I feel that I should like to say 
a few words on Dr. Hunter’s paper. I am sorry that anyone 
should make a remark that a physician, because interested mone- 
tarily in any particular remedy, would dishonorably advance the 
cause of that remedy. I think the medical profession to-day the 
noblest on the face of the earth. There is no class of people 
who do so much charity, so much good to humanity, who are so 
running over with the milk of human kindness as the medical 
profession ; and I do not believe we have a member who would 
debase and stultify himself by advocating any remedy simply for 
the monetary interest he had in it. I want to thank the doctor 
for his paper. I am of a rheumatic diathesis myself, and I have 
an utter abhorrence—which one, perhaps, ought not to have who 
practices medicine—against medicines; and our old remedies, 
colchicum, and so on, salicylic acid, and salicylates, etc., are very 
unpleasant to me. I certainly have enjoyed taking the remedy 
—Alkalithia—which the doctor advocates, on account of its 
pleasantness to take. I enjoy its effervescent taste. Even if he 
had a monetary interest, he would not stultify himself and the 
medical profession by saying anything outside of that which he 
knew to be true ; of that I am sure. Again, I would say in 
regard to asthma, and the remarks about curing the disease, that 
I don’t believe there is one of us, who after he had sat down at 
the table and eaten a real good Christmas dinner, would not feel 
that his hunger was cured for that time, although it might recur 
next day. So, if we had a case of chills and fever, we may cure 
that for the time being, but of course we are subject to it at any 
time, and—well, if we could cure all of them and make them 
stay cured, Othello’s occupation would be gone. They will 
come back again, and that is what makes business. I want to 
again thank the doctor for his paper. 
Dr. B. F. Smith, Hillsboro.—Mr. Chairman, and gentle- 
men, I do not know when I have listened to a paper with more 
pleasure than that read by the doctor, and the discussion that 
has followed. Speaking of the question of asthma, I will say at 
6 once that I believe, as the gentlemen who discussed this paper 
stated, that it is a symptomatic condition ; it is not a disease per 
se; and when we come to consider the uric acid diathesis, or 
lithiasis, it is protean in its forms and its manifestations. As the 
lady from Austin stated, it may manifest itself in rheumatism, in 
gout, in asthma, and in various other ways; we may have vaso- 
motor disturbances; but I think the doctor’s treatment is good 
unquestionably. However, I cannot help but believe, after we 
have rid the system of uric acid, if we indulge in nitrogenous 
elements, highly nitrogenous food, why, as a matter of course, we 
will have a surplus of uric acid again. Therefore, I do not be- 
lieve there is any permanent remedy for asthma, but that Alka- 
lithia is one of the best remedies that can be suggestad. I would 
like, however, to suggest this, as a more appropriate observation 
in this connection, that instead of Othello’s profession being 
gone, we may feel that Richard is himself again. 
Dr. M. L. Graves, Waco.—I feel a very earnest interest in 
this subject, not because I possess, perhaps, the enthusiasm of 
Dr. Hunter, because this is somewhat a child of his own brain 
and not of mine; and I claim that it is a disease and not a condi- 
tion. Dr. Menefee says it is a condition, but I imagine if you 
will ask any of the patients suffering with it they will tell you it 
is a disease, and a pretty severe one. It is either a disease or a 
symptom, and it removes itself from the class of symptoms be- 
cause it has attached to itself a permanent history—a permanent 
clinical history. Not a permanent pathology that is yet known, 
I will admit, but perhaps a permanent pathology that will become 
known. It has, to a certain extent, a defined course, and, to a 
certain extent, a defined line of treatment. I do not think that 
Dr. Hunter maintains in his paper that asthma is universally 
produced by uric acid, and from my personal observation, I believe 
that it is only the few cases that are so produced—not the ma- 
jority, but the minority of cases, that are produced by either the 
excess of uric acid or the disproportion between the elimination 
of uric acid and urea—because, gentlemen, Dr. Haig has demon- 
strated that there is where the trouble lies. Many a man, after 
a nitrogenous meal, or a course of meals, will excrete more uric 
acid than usual, without suffering with tonsilitis, or rheumatism, 
or gout, or asthma, or bronchitis, or migraine, or any of the 
neuroses which, perhaps, are attributable to this cause, because 
the normal proportion between the urea and the uric acid is kept 
up in their elimination. But in those cases which are produced 
by uric acid, I believe that the combination presented by Dr. 
Hunter is a very valuable one. I do not believe that the prep- 
7 aration will cure every case of uric acid asthma—I mean to say 
temporarily cure it, relieve it—because we all recognize the fact 
that the prime conditions, the nitrogenous element, and the lack 
of physical exercise, which usually produce the disease or the 
diathesis, will come back again. Nor do I give the Alkalithia for 
the same reason that Dr. Leake takes it. As I understand it, 
she takes Alkalithia for the same reason that I like champagne, 
because it tastes good and has an effervescent effect. I give the 
Alkalithia in these cases because I believe it counteracts, or it 
holds in solution and dissolves the urate deposits, and facilitates, 
by its diuretic influence, the elimination of this uric acid from the 
system. I will say in connection with the case that the doctor 
mentioned in hiS paper, that I saw that case some three years 
ago, suffering for years with asthma, a young lady who is a seam- 
stress. Her surroundings, and her condition and environments 
are the same now that they were then. She obtained only tem- 
porary relief. Upon definite analysis of the urine I found a large 
excess of uric acid, so much so that even when I made a test for 
albumen, by Heller's contact method, within twenty-four hours 
there would be a deposit along the line of the tube of numerous 
crystals of uric acid. I put this patient upon Alkalithia, but at 
the same time I was very careful to instruct her to let up on a 
meat diet and on the ingestion of nitrogenous drinks, like coffee, 
tea and chocolate. I don’t think the Alkalithia alone is the proper 
treatment. If you continue to add fuel to the flames by keeping 
up the diet, which is the prime factor in the production of the 
disease, you are doing a great injury to your patient, and only 
offering a palliative relief at best. But if you arm the patient with 
advice that will enable him to keep free of your hands and the 
drug stores for the next ten years to come by exercise and proper 
dieting, and by the remedy itself, though it may be but palliative, 
you have done him the greatest good that it is possible for med- 
icine to do. Now, this patient has not had asthma for three years. 
As I say, she has continued her sedentary occupation. She has 
lessened the nitrogenous input, and in addition to that she has 
increased the amount of exercise that she takes; and just in con- 
nection with that I want to refer to the fact that it is not only the 
lessening of the nitrogenous food, but the oxidizing process in 
assimilation given by exercise. If you oxidize all the food that 
the patient gets into his body, I don’t care how much nitrogen 
you have, you will never have rheumatism, you will never have 
asthma, and you will never have gout. The trouble comes in 
the failure of oxidation in the body, so that the waste products, 
that is, the products of nutrition and assimilation, are not freed 
8 from these different organs—and I believe the liver is one of the 
most important of them—and it accumulates there, deposits itself 
in the fibrous tissues, where the circulation is the minimum, and in 
the muscles, and, as the result of that, you have either sub-acute or 
acute rheumatism, or this other train of diseases, perhaps migraine 
or tonsilitis, or some of the others. I am glad that the doctor 
has presented this paper to the Association, but in connection 
with it the doctor should have his attention directed to the many 
other causes of asthma. I have given the Alkalithia to half a 
dozen cases where it has not done the slightest good, even with 
the improvement in dieting, but where the remedy will relieve 
one asthmatic we are conferring a valuable boon upon the sufferer. 
I have seen some cases where I believe the asthma is due to en- 
larged turbinates in the nose and reflex disturbances from that; 
and I want to say that if these are found out early enough, and 
operated upon before the foundation is laid in the system, and the 
habit is formed as it is in children, the patient can be perma- 
nently relieved by the removal of the large turbinates. But if 
you let asthma establish itself and remain in the system fifty years, 
where the primary cause was enlarged turbinates, I doubt if you 
will get relief by the removal of the turbinates. I believe 
asthma is a disease. It is true it is protean—possibly as much 
a disease as pneumonia. You don’t always have the same kind 
of pneumonia, and you don’t always, perhaps, have the same 
exciting cause of pneumonia. You may have catarrhal pneu- 
monia, and croupal pneumonia, and congestive pneumonia, from 
passive congestion I mean, as a secondary result; but the pneu- 
monia is there just the same, and it is a disease just the same. 
And you may have asthma from various causes; it may be due 
to a neurotic condition of the inside ear, or it may be due to 
enlarged turbines, or it may be the uric acid diathesis, or many 
of the others; but it is a disease all the same. It produces a 
certain train of symptoms very unpleasant to the patient, and 
very difficult for the doctor to relieve. And I believe that as 
soon as a scientific investigation is brought to bear .upon these 
different focalizing influences that produce asthma, either as an 
exciting or as a primary cause, we will get a fuller knowledge of 
this disease, and a successful line of treatment will be effected; 
and I think Dr. Hunter’s efforts in this direction will be productive 
of good, because they direct the attention of the profession to at 
least one of the causes, thereby permitting relief to a number of 
the sufferers. 
Dr. Terrell.—Following upon Dr. Graves’ remark, to have 
an attack of asthma you have to have three forces: a neurotic 
9 tendency, an exciting cause and a focus from which the trouble 
starts. I call to mind three cases now, which I treated on the 
plan suggested by Dr. Graves, of removing the cause by dieting, 
etc. One of them was as long ago as five years, and I have 
followed her carefully, and she has not had a single attack of 
asthma since. The last one was six months ago. 
Dr. Benbrook.—There is no question that almost all neu- 
rotic troubles can be improved or modified by an alkaline treat- 
ment. I find asthma, though, one of the most stubborn and 
most distressing troubles that we have to contend with in the 
whole category of neuroses. Every practitioner has come in 
contact, more or less, with this trouble, because we have a great 
deal of it in Texas; and, as my friend Dr. Menefee remarked a 
while ago, what will relieve the patient one time will not relieve 
him the next time. I have treated a great many cases, and a 
remedy I would use with good effect in one attack, the next time 
would seem to aggravate the trouble. For instance, I have given 
morphine hypodermically for the relief of those troubles, and one 
time it would relieve the patient, and another time, a little later, 
it would seem to produce a dyspnoea—would aggravate the 
difficulty. I found often, in the treatment of this case, that 
steaming the patient, just with hot water, throwing a blanket over 
him, putting a bucket beneath the blanket, with steaming water 
in it, gave relief almost instantaneously. It is hard to adopt any 
particular line of treatment in one of these asthmatic attacks that 
is satisfactory to me and a relief to the patient. I will say that 
I have had two patients get well of asthma in spite of my treat- 
ment. One a lady I know that has been well for eight years, 
and has not been troubled with asthma, that used to have very 
ugly attacks of it, and very stubborn. I have sat up with her 
all night trying to relieve her. I ler attacks grew lighter and 
lighter, and finally disappeared. It has been about eight years 
since she has been troubled with it at all. I don’t accord it to 
any particular treatment that was given at all ; the trouble dis- 
appeared, and I cannot account for it. 
Dr. Hunter.—Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen, I am very 
much obliged to the Society for the liberal discussion of this 
important subject. As to my ever claiming that every case of 
asthma was caused by uric acid, and that Alkalithia would cure 
every case, I have never done this. I was about to remark that 
you might just as well say that you won’t have any more chills 
and fever after you had cured a case once with quinine. If you 
have a patient suffering with asthma, and can relieve that patient 
with Alkalithia, I don’t care whether it lasts a week, or a month, or a year, or two or three years, you have benefited the patient. 
Now, you have chills and fever, and break it up with quinine, and 
let that patient live in that same malarial district next year, and 
he will have chills and fever again, unless you give the same 
prophylactic. But, gentlemen, the great trouble with us is we 
don’t differentiate our cases, and this is what has given the medi- 
cal profession so much trouble heretofore, though anybody is 
able to diagnose a case of asthma when he comes into the office 
wheezing. The patient comes in and says, “Doctor, can’t you 
cure this trouble for me? You have generally relieved me with 
a hypodermic injection of morphine or atropia or something, but 
can’t you cure me?” Well, the doctor don’t look to see whether 
he has a polypus in his nose; nine times out of ten he doesn’t 
differentiate the case to see whether there is uric acid in the case 
or not, but he says, “ Dr. Hunter read a paper on uric acid as 
the cause of asthma, and because I can’t cure you with anything 
else, I will try Alkalithia.” Probably that man has a polypus in 
his nose, and if he has, you can’t cure him with a barrel of Alka- 
lithia. Gentlemen, I have been practicing medicine for nearly 
forty years. I have treated smallpox, and nearly all the con- 
tagious and infectious diseases. I have endangered my life in all 
kinds of cases, riding dark nights in the rain, with my horse on 
a lope, when I couldn’t see the road, and frequently never got a 
dollar for it. I have done that often; but, gentlemen, I want to 
say now, that I wouldn’t exchange to-day that amount of good 
which my paper, my investigation of the uric acid principle, has 
done for asthma, for all the good that I may have done in cases 
referred to. I claim to be the first man in Texas who thoroughly 
investigated the uric acid theory; the first man who ever read a 
paper on uric acid as the cause of asthma. No, gentlemen, I 
wouldn’t take a world of money for the good the investigation 
of the uric acid theory of the causation of this disease caused by 
this paper has and will do suffering humanity. Look at the four 
cases that have been reported to-day; these are in evidence. 
There is Dr. Momand of Dallas; that gentleman there knows 
him, and knows of his experience with asthma. That old gentle- 
man had asthma for fifty years, and I put him on Alkalithia and 
he got well. I reported his case in the paper I read in Dallas 
three years ago. I met the doctor in Dallas the other day, at 
the North Texas Medical Association, and I hardly knew him. 
I said, “Doctor, you are looking splendidly; how about your 
asthma? Have you ever had any more of it?’’ He said, 
“ Doctor, I have never had an attack of it since.” There is a 
man that has not taken any Alkalithia or prophylactic after ap- 
11 parent cure, but still, it may seize him again. Uric acid is like 
everything else, it will accumulate in the blood. You take an 
old beer drinker, or a heavy meat eater, and give him proper diet 
and drink, as Dr. Graves tells you, which is the proper way to 
do, and put him on Alkalithia, and you will cure him nine times 
out of ten; but if he goes back to his beer, his wine and his 
meat, he will have it again, just like the man with chills and 
fever, who daily lives in a malarial district. Hut, as I tell you, 
when it is caused from uric acid, we have Tio remedy to equal 
the Alkalithia. I have seen and talked with physicians all over 
these United States; Dr. Gaston, of Atlanta, Ga., has recently 
cured a case with the remedy which is being considered, You 
all know Dr. Gaston from reputation, if you do not know him 
personally. He used to translate from the Spanish journals for 
Gaillard's Medical Journal. I know a number of cases in Atlanta, 
and a number of cases in Augusta. I have a report of a case 
now from Dr. Gordy, of Augusta, Georgia, who is treasurer of 
his state medical society, and has been for seventeen years. 1 le 
told me last summer he had reported the case to the Augusta 
Medical Society about two years ago; and this summer 1 was 
with him at Augusta, and learned from him that his case was 
seemingly permanently cured. In some cases it takes a great 
deal of the remedy, and in some it takes less. Dr. Weathers, of 
San Antonio, sent me a letter in regard to a case he treated. 
This case was that of a man who was a conductor on a road 
running out of San Antonio. He had to give him seventeen 
bottles before he cured him. It is now a great while since he 
had an attack, and is actively doing his duty as a conductor. 
That is the way it goes; it takes more Alkalithia in some cases 
than it does in others, but it must be continued until the blood 
becomes alkaline and remains so, then usually the asthma is cured, 
though it may perhaps again return. 1 am very much obliged, 
gentlemen, for the discussion. 
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