In 1946, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company launched an ad campaign with the slogan, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” Long before Camel cigarettes became the doctor-approved cigarette of choice, at least in advertising, people living with asthma were often instructed to inhale smoke to relieve their symptoms. And that advice was for asthmatic adults – and children. ‘Asthma cigarettes’, as they were called, and related products, weren’t packed full of tobacco, though many did include it; they were, essentially, psychotropic drugs from the nightshade family that people inhaled in hopes of finding respiratory relief. Let's take a look at what kinds of quack – and, to be honest, some not-so-quack – products for asthma before the invention of the modern inhaler.

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