The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 103 of 653The exciting causes of croup are not always easy to trace. Ifcroup is a very rare disease in warm climates, nor is very frequein mountainous districts, provided the locality is at a consideraaltitude or otherwise well protected: we still are unable to explby these facts why so many cases of croup occur in one and so fewin another year. A northwest or a north wind, or even a sultryand southwest wind with rain, are very apt to bring a good dealof sickness. A district not far from the city of Hanover andsituated in front of a range of mountains extending from northwest to southeast, in consequence of which that district is exposto the winds blowing in a similar direction, is visited every yeafrom March until June by a good many cases of croup and ofsevere pneumonia among adults. The flat country from Hanoverto the North-Sea is similarly circumstanced. The winds blowingin this region of country, must be possessed of a peculiar natureorder to cause extensive epidemics which sometimes snatch awaytwenty and more children in one village. According to the investigations of latter years, which indeed are still incomplete,appears as though the amount of ozone in the air acted an important part as one of the causative influences of croup. This is60 much more probable since the amount of ozone contained in *the air is liable to the greatest variations during the prevalencof abnormal proportions of electricity such as are apt to be caus(8)114 Diseases of the Larynx and Trachea.by a northwest wind. That croup ia caused by a simple cold, ismuch more easily asserted than proven. The same child has manyattacks of violent laryngeal catarrh in the course of the year, bis attacked with croup only during the prevalence of a keen blastfrom the north. The epidemic character of croup likewise showsthat there must be other causes at work in its development beside cold or warm weather. That croup is contagious is only believed by those who regard croup and di]>htheria as identical.SymptomH and Course. For a clearer comprehension of themorbid symptoms we here premise a short description of the postmortem appearances. The mucous membrane shows every possibledegree of hypersemia, from the brightest to the darkest color, buonly if death takes place after the disease had run a short coursif it lasts a more considerable length of time, the color of themembrane is sometimes strikingly pale. The sub-mucous tissue isusually infiltrated, the mucous membrane itself less frequently,though the infiltration is not co/isiderable ; the muscular tissuof the larynx is likewise found swollen and softened. Upon thefree surface of the mucous membrane an exudation of fibrinousplasma takes place, at times only in detached spots, at other timcovering a large portion and even the whole surface of the larynxand trachea, and dipping down to the bronchial tubes. In fewcases only the exudation has the consistence of cream ; usually ibecomes tough and firm, in which case these characteristics aremore marked on the free surface of the membrane than on thesurface adhering to the mucous lining. At times it adheres to thilining loosely, at other times very firmly. The thickness of thismembranous exudation sometimes exceeds one line, sometimes itonly forms a very thin, transparent layer. The formation of ahttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt