Diphtheritis or the membranous disease, commonly called membranous croup, as it appears in Roxbury and the vicinity of Boston / by B. E. Cotting ; reprinted from the Proceedings of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement.

  • Cotting, Benjamin Eddy, 1812-1897.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diphtheritis or the membranous disease, commonly called membranous croup, as it appears in Roxbury and the vicinity of Boston / by B. E. Cotting ; reprinted from the Proceedings of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    long time; the latter,* now the cause of much violent and misdi- rected treatment, should be restricted to a single form of disease, or else discarded from use altogether. Of all these appellations, ancient and modern, that given by Bretonneau, about thirty years ago, would have been the most worthy of universal adoption, had not he and his followers persist- ed in classing under it various kinds of angina t—thereby mak- ing it as vague as any of its predecessors. At first this term met with some little opposition and ridicule; subsequently it fell into apparent neglect, but now seems to be starting afresh into general favor. Such, however, is the professional tendency to extremes, that, from present indications, all the acute diseases of the throat and air-passages, however dissimilar, will before long have a place prepared for them under the expansive title of Diphtherite, or its English corruption, Diphtheria. The original Greek word,:}: far superior in all respects to any of its recent derivatives, certainly indicates the peculiar characteris- tic of membranous disease; and perhaps it is not too late to hope that this or some other appropriate term may sometime hereafter be received and restricted to that disease alone. In the momen- tary indulgence of such a hope, the following remarks will be con- fined as far as possible to the membranous disease, commonly called in this vicinity membranous croup —a true diphtheritis. The con- clusions to be offered are founded on those cases only where the pe- culiar membrane was obtained and carefully examined, after spon- taneous ejection in cases of recovery, or by cadaveric autopsy. The membranous disease is an affection, the result of a distinct influence, giving rise to characteristic symptoms or outward mani- festations, through which, as is the case with other diseases, it be- comes known to us. These symptoms are both constitutional and local. The constitutional may be so severe and so rapidly develop- ed as to destroy life before the local have become a source of dan- ger ; or they may be so slight as to be overlooked. The local also may have the violence, though not the other characteristics of rapid inflammations, or their existence may even be a matter' of doubt until made evident by obstruction caused by the membrane fully formed. 'Croup: a vulgar Scotch word, first introduced into medical literature by F. Home 1765 t On appelle encore commandment An<nnt loutc affection inflamm„ • i t lutOvi'K, 'em-*•■!*.,:„,, cmxrul or,M m .on ,u,a , ,., ' h , , P ,