Part 1, Chapter 4 A Disease of the Direst Suffering Summary

Among the most serious of childhood illnesses is bronchial asthma. The disease is not only a severe one but it also affects the entire family as they deal with the child's attacks and the uncertainty of when they will happen.

The common methods used at the time of Teedie's childhood were varied. Emetics and purges were common. To avert an attack, the patient might be made violently ill or dosed with ipecac. Children were given enemas, plunged into cold baths, given whiskey, gin, and Indian hemp, made to inhale chloroform, and so on. The Roosevelts also used black coffee and had Teedie swallow ipecac and smoke cigars. Black coffee was a sound choice as the caffeine, a stimulant, is akin to drugs used in the present day to treat...