A Remedy for Asthma.

I am sending you by mail under separate cover a small quantity of some seeds known locally as wild celery seeds, and used by quite a large number of people in this locality as a domestic remedy for asthma.

My attention was first called to this remedy last summer, but too late to gather only a small amount of the seeds. The directions given are for the patient to chew, thoroughly, six or eight of the seeds and to swallow them with the saliva. In from five to ten minutes if the lungs are inflated it will be observed that there is an increased expansive power. I cannot find anything in my library that describes this as a remedial agent or in fact that makes any reference to it whatever.

The amount I send you will make at least eight ounces of the tincture and if you should have a case of asthma I would like to have you try it and observe the results. You may give half of a teaspoonful every two or three hours, and when the patient is relieved the interval between the doses may be increased. The seed should be crushed before the alcohol is added in preparing the tincture.

Yours truly,

D. E. RUFF, M. D.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.