Dissertations, On cynanche trachealis or croup, and On the functions of the extreme capillary vessels in health and disease : to which were awarded the Boylston premiums for the years 1820 and 1823 / by William Sweetser.

  • Sweetser, William, 1797-1875.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dissertations, On cynanche trachealis or croup, and On the functions of the extreme capillary vessels in health and disease : to which were awarded the Boylston premiums for the years 1820 and 1823 / by William Sweetser. 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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    observe, however, that these distinctions are only to be learned, from much attention to the different cases of the disease ; for the sound of the cough is so similar in both, as to inspire even the most* experienced with some degree of doubt. I have sat by the child's bed- side repeatedly, watching for the moment of danger, while the cough was increasing in violence ; and have been only undeceived, by finding that no tremor or palpitation came on towards midnight, that the restlessness abated, and that sleep seemed to become more composed.* Some writers have thought it necessary to point out the distinguishing characters between croup and some other diseases which we have not noticed, among which are hooping cough, hydrophobia, and hysteria; but the line is so distinctly drawn here, that it would seem almost impossible for any physician having a tolerable acquaintance with his profession to mistake these for croup.f * Medical Histories and Reflections. t In the Med. Chirurg. Trans, vol. 12th, part 1st, Dr Marshall Hall h;is published (bur cases of an affection which was produced in children by their attempting to drink through the spout of a tea-kettle containing boiling water, having symptoms similar to those which occur in croup. Out of the four cases recorded by him, one only recovered. Bronchotomy was performed in one instance, and gave immediate, and very manifest relief. The patient died, however, in about thirty four hours after the oper- ation, exhausted, as was thought, by the irritation from the pri. mary affection. On dissection of this case, the epiglottis was discovered to be swollen, blistered and corrugated, and the inter- nal mouth, tongue, and fauces affected in the same way. A little mucus was seen in the larynx, but no morbid condition of the stomach or oesophagus. The trachea was not at all inflamed-