During the mid-19th century, two prominent physicians began to champion smoking as a treatment for asthma. One of them, English doctor Henry Hyde Salter, believed that asthma was caused by nervousness or excitement, which were said to lead to spasms of the bronchial tube muscles.
Salter advocated a range of so-called treatments, including the use of stimulants, to draw what he called “morbid activity” from the lungs. He also recommended taking tobacco as well as sedatives like chloroform and stramonium to relieve and suppress irritation. As we now know, smoking can in fact exacerbate asthma – and indeed trigger asthmatic attacks – rather than relieving it.