Title continues: "To Which are Added Cases and Observations, in which the Asthma is complicated with the following Diseases: Catarrhs. Humoral asthmas. Tubercles in the Lungs. Consumptions. Universal dropsical Swellings. A Dropsy of the Breast. Jaundice. Gout. Rheumatism. Chronic Weakness. Intermittent Fevers. Inflammations of the Lungs. Abcesses and Ulcers in the Lungs. The False Peripneumony. Spittings of Blood. Excessive Corpulency. Severe Headachs. Teething. Cutaneous Eruptions. Obstruction of the Menses. A Venereal Ulcer of the Nose. Spasmodic Affections of the Throat. Hysteric Fits. General Convulsions." Withers' treatise provides a rare glimpse of the prevalence of asthma in the 18th century. He felt the condition was becoming more frequent and attributed it to the perils of modern living: "The greater irritability and weakness of the constitution in these days, may, in some measure account for the greater frequence of the Asthma, especially if we add the inventive genius, and the rapid progress of mankind in all the various arts of modern luxury and refinement" (p. 2). The bookplate is that of Professor Edwin Bramwell (1873-1952), clinician, lecturer, and medical writer. Bramwell was Moncrieff-Arnott Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh and eventually became President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
