In connection with many troubles, what may be called _local assimilation_ has to be considered. A foot, say, with a bad abscess or diseased bone (_see_ Pain, Severe) is cured by hot bathing and pressure. From a shrunken and feeble limb, the leg grows to a healthy and strong one. This occurs because the heat and pressure have so stimulated its vitality that the material supplied by the blood can be utilised in the leg for purposes of healthy growth. So with any other part of the body. Such diet as we have indicated supplies easily assimilated substance. The local heating, pressure, and bathing enable this substance to be utilised where it is needed. A little careful thought on this line will guide to proper treatment of almost any case where assimilation has failed, either locally or generally, and will lead the way to a method of cure. Asthma exists in various forms, having equally various causes. One of these causes, giving rise to a comparatively simple form of the disease, is cramp of the ring-muscle of the windpipe, so contracting the windpipe that breathing is rendered difficult. A "wheeze" is heard in breathing, though there is no bronchitis or lung trouble present. The cause of this cramp is an irritation of the ring-muscle's nerve. It can be relieved by pressing cold cloths gently along the spine, from the back of the head to between the shoulders, taking care that the patient remains _generally warm_ during the treatment, and attending to the feet and skin as directed below in this article. Sometimes the cause seems to lie in the air of the place where the sufferer resides. A change either to high ground or the seaside will often entirely remove asthma, especially in the young. In any such case a trial should be made of several places, if that be at all possible, and that place fixed upon where the asthma is least felt. At SEAMILL SANATORIUM (_see_) many asthmatic persons have found complete freedom from their trouble from the day of their arrival, and the treatment given has made this cure permanent. Another cause of asthma is lack of power in the breathing muscles. In such a case the patient clings to a particular _attitude_, in which alone he can breathe. This is in most cases due to a lack of vitality in the root nerve which supply the breathing muscles.