Q J Med 2004; 97: 247-257
QJM vol. 97 no. 5 (c) Association of Physicians 2004; all rights reserved.
The 2003 Sir William Osler Lecture |
Lessons learnt from the epidemic of asthma
From the Allergy and Inflammation Research Division, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Historical perspectives
In his ‘Treatise on Asthma; Its Pathology and Treatment’ published in 1860, Henry Hyde Salter, a London physician, described the disorder as ‘paroxysmal dyspnoea of a peculiar character, generally periodic with intervals of healthy respiration between the attacks’.1 Although at that time the concept of allergy had not yet been introduced, Salter was aware of the hereditary nature of the disease, and its relation to ‘idiosyncrasies’ such as the emanations of horses, cats and other animals. Similarly, he appreciated the importance of emotional disturbances in asthma. However, it took a further 30 years before William Osler, in his first edition of Principles and Practices of Medicine (1892),2 connected disordered airway function of asthma with a variety of pathological changes in the lung, including bronchial mucosal oedema, inflammation and the production of ‘gelatinous’ mucus. Osler also drew attention to the bizarre and extraordinary variety of circumstances which, at times
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Postscript
Address correspondence to Professor S.T. Holgate, Allergy and Inflammation Research Division, Mailpoint 810, Level D, Centre Block, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD. e-mail: sth@soton.ac.uk