The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 102 of 653a copious exudation upon the mucous membrane, on which accountit is also described as angina membranacea. It is only in the preent century that the anatomy, cause and course of this disease habeen studied with more particular care. Consequently the literatuof croup has become very extensive; owing to the importance of adisease which so often terminates fatally.Croup is almost exclusively a disease of children between theages of two and seven years, or between the first and seconddentition. It occurs even less frequently before the second thanafter the seventh year; the cases which are said to have occurred among adults are so rare that it is doubtful whether theywere genuine croup. Moreover such cases scarcely ever provefatal, BO that the fact of their being croup cannot be confirmedpost-mortem examinations. According to all statistical tables boyare more frequently attacked than girls ; from 60 to 70 per cent,all cases are boys. As regards the influence of constitution andvarious other points in croup, opinions difler. Rilliet who can imany respects be regarded as an authority in croup, asserts positively that most children who are attacked with croup, are of alymphatic habit. In this respect he differs from a number of physicians who maintain that robust, well-fed children are most liabto croup. Upon close examination we fiiyl however that these twoviews only differ in appearance. A lymphatic constitution is oftedisguised under a full habit, bright complexion, appearance ofmuscular strength; whereas a marked disposition to eczema, togastric catarrhs, to angina with copious exudation and subsequenthypertrophied swellings, distinctly betray a bad foundation. Hencit is not perfectly healthy and vigorous children that are predisposed to croup, which is still more evident from the following prpositions derived from actual experience. Most of the childrenattacked with croup belong to scrofulous and tuberculous familieswhere croup has been a prevailing disease for several generationsMoreover croup is much more frequent in the country where theground is level, than in cities, and here again more frequent inLaryngotracheitis Crouposa. 118lower strata of the population. We shall show afterwards, however, haw in the country so many circumstances combine for thedevelopment of tuberculosis, and how similar circumstances prevaiamong the lower strata of citj-population. In this respect we canaccount for the frequently observed fact that croup is an hereditdisease or that several members of a family are attacked at onceshortly one after the other, or that the same individual is attacseveral times in succession. It cannot be denied that if a childbeen once attacked with croup, it retains an increased dispositioto inflammatory affections of the larynx.True croup is secondarily met' with, although very rarely, asan accompaniment of measles,- typhus, tuberculosis. In a case ofmeasles catarrhal croup is easily confounded with true croup ; thmeasle-catarrh is apt to commence with croupy cough which maycontinue for several days. The croup which is sometimes observedin a case of scarlatina, is something entii^ely different from trcroup; it is a diphtheritic disease the true characteristics of whave already been described in the first volume.http://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt