Bronchitis is as common as tuberculosis, and the two are often confounded. It is said to be bilateral, and to affect either the large or the medium-sized tubes, or the small bronchi. It has not been my experience that it is confined to one side of the chest, or one lung, more than to both lungs. In fact, ordinary bronchitis, which gives so much of a resemblance of tuberculosis, is usually confined to the large bronchial tubes, not extending beyond the medium; and it is a very common thing to have asthma as a complication.

Etiology

Acute bronchitis is, in common, everyday language, catarrh--the same as catarrh of the nose and throat, or catarrh of the intestine, such as colitis, etc. Every cold that is caught means an exacerbation of the chronic bronchial disease. Many cases are quite free from bronchorrhea, or the symptoms of cough and expectoration, during the summer, but in the winter frequent colds keep the subject of bronchitis constantly coughing and expectorating. An acute attack, without any previous history of the disease, may be simply an extension of an acute catarrh or cold from the posterior nares through the pharynx to the trachea, and then to the bronchial tubes. Bronchitis is associated with deranged digestion, intestinal toxemia, measles, typhoid fever, and malaria. Subjects of curvature of the spine are liable to have a bronchial cough. Kidney disease and heart disease are frequently accompanied by a chronic form of cough. The disease may appear in children at the breast, and extend all through the different ages to old age. There are people who seem to be predisposed to take on bronchial cough, but these are what I would call cases of chronic bronchitis. The only reason why they have no cough and expectoration all the time is because they are not living in such a way as to encourage this catarrhal state all the time. Some people are out-of-doors so much of the time in summer, and eat so much of fruit and vegetables, and abstain to such an extent from heavy diet, that they get almost normal. There is no disease to which flesh is heir that is so susceptible to the influences of wrong living as chronic bronchitis.

This disease is often the result of imperfectly cured measles or other eruptive diseases. Anything that builds a catarrh in any part of the body will build a catarrhal state of the bronchial tubes, or bronchitis. There is no difference at all between bronchitis and colitis, except in the location and perhaps in degree. It has been my experience that asthma is nothing more than chronic bronchitis affecting the capillary bronchial tubes, because this disease is brought on, and caused to continue in existence, by exactly the same mode of life that will feed up acute or chronic bronchitis, or. a catarrhal state of any part of the body.

Symptoms

In acute bronchitis all the symptoms of an ordinary cold extending into the bronchial tubes are present. This makes as good a description as can be given. There will be sneezing and coughing, and the eyes will water almost as much as in a case of coryza--and what is a coryza but a cold? The fact of the matter is that catarrh of the mucous membrane about the face, nose, eyes, ears, throat, lungs, is all related. It requires the same constitutional derangement, and identically the same treatment is proper for all.

Add the symptom of difficult breathing to a bronchitis, and you have the picture of asthma. All cases of asthma, however, do not come from catarrh of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes. There is a heart asthma--an asthma that is due to valvular heart disease. The treatment for bronchial asthma will not be suitable for this form of asthma. There can also be an asthma due to tumors in the mediastinum, pressing upon the bronchial tubes. There can also be an asthma produced by aneurism; but this form is a very rare disease. The rule is that, when patients have difficult breathing, the trouble is bronchial asthma,

Treatment

The treatment for acute bronchitis is the same as for a cold. (See the treatment given for coryza, supra.) In chronic bronchitis the treatment must be such as will restore the general health. The patient must learn to live normally--not part of the time live correctly, and then abuse himself part of the time by living incorrectly. If the treatment is started at an exacerbation period, or at a period when there is an increase of the symptoms from a recent cold, it must be the same as for acute bronchitis or for colds. The bowels must be washed out daily until the symptoms are all better. After the patient is better, if the cure is to be permanent, the excessive use of meat must be given up. Fruit should be taken for one meal, starch and fruit for one meal, and cooked, non-starchy vegetables, a combination salad, and meat, for the third meal. If the patient is light in weight, he can use starch in the dinner every other day, and the alternate days take eggs, lamb, or chicken with the cooked, non-starchy vegetables and a salad.

Asthma should be treated about as follows: The patient should fast until the lungs are clear, so that the breathing is perfectly free. This may require one, two, or three weeks. I have had a few cases that required thirty days; but any patient is well rewarded for going without food until fully relieved. Then very great care should be exercised in eating, and otherwise taking care of the body, so as not to bring the disease back. Decided cases of asthma, or those that have been asthmatic for years, should go without milk, cheese, butter, sugar, candies, and the strong meats, such as beef and pork, for at least one year. They should eat two meals of fruit, and one meal every other day of lamb, chicken, fish, or eggs, with cooked, non-starchy vegetables and salad, and the alternate days a decidedly starchy food, with vegetables and salad.