The Materia Medica of the Hindus, compiled from Sanskrit Medical Works c5.s16.14

c5.s16.14

In the Bengal Dispensatory (page 469) it is stated that "we are indebted to the native practitioners of India for a method of using stramonium in spasmodic asthma, which is certainly found of great benefit in numerous cases. We allude to the practice of smoking the leaves or dried stems." The smoking of *dhatura* leaves is prescribed at present both by English and native practitioners in spasmodic asthma, but I have not met with any written prescription for it in Sanskrit or vernacular medical works, nor does the Taleef Shereef allude to the practice as known to the Mussulman hakims. It would seem therefore that this use of the drug is of recent origin.