A working classification of asthma

1.1. A working classification of some sort is essential for the study and treatment of asthma. 2.2. When asthma begins before age thirty, it should be considered to depend upon allergy until proved otherwise. 3.3. When asthma begins after age forty, it should be considered as due to factors other than allergy until proved otherwise. 4.4. In the younger age group it is the clinical history which is of vital importance in diagnosis and so in treatment. 5.5. In the older group the factors of “depletion”, both psychic and somatic, may be essential. 6.6. Polypoid sinus disease is more a part of the picture than a cause of it. 7.7. Structural emphysema as well as tumors and foreign bodies must be considered in all difficult cases.