The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 126 of 653Symptoms and Covrne. The disease consists of paroxysmsseparated from each other by complete intermissions of variousdurations. The first paroxysm mostly occurs at night while thechildren are asleep, very rarely during a vehement crying sfiell.After sleeping quietly for a few hours, they are suddenly rousedfrom sleep with a peculiar cry, as the parents describe it ; or rwith a dif&cult, hissing inspiration of an unusually ringing sounat the same time the faculty of breathing is either entirely suspended, or else the inspirations become rapidly more labored anda few moments quite impossible. The children are lying as if deadat most performing a few anxious movements with the arms ; theface assumes a bluish pallor, the features become pendulous, thecountenance looks bloated, the eyes are distorted and fixed. Thebreathing is entirely suspended. If the attack lasts any length otime, the skin becomes cool and the head is covered with a coldsweat. The pulse is of course very small and accelerated, and mayeven cease entirely. An attack of this kind which naturally enougfills the relatives with indescribable anguish, lasts a few seconseveral minutes, ending with an inspiration entirely like the onewith which the attack commenced, which is followed by normalrespiration, and, if the attack did not last too long, by perfectcovery ; in the opposite case the patients feel anxious and langubut only for a "short time, after which they do not show any signof discomfort, K an older child is attacked, the symptoms varysomewhat ; the child makes great efiforts to overcome the impediment to inspiration, and the loss of consciousness sets in moreslowly. If the attacks return frequently and are very intense,clonic convulsions often supervene.The very first attack may terminate fatally, but this is not oftethe case : as soon as general convulsions set in, the danger incrgreatly, likewise if the attacks follow each other in rapid succeif the patients are not asphyxiated, they perish by inanition.The recurrence of the attacks is not governed by a fixed rule,not even in the case of the same individual. It is very rare thatthe disease is confined to a single attack, but a second attack stimes does not take place until months have elapsed. The firstattack almost always occurs during sleep ; subsequent att142 Diseases of the Larynx and Trachea.take place in the waking state. The more frequently they occur,the more dangerous they hecome. Recovery mostly takes placegradually, with a gradual decrease of the intensity and frequencyof the attacks ; it may drag along for months and may only beapparent, since another attack may break out again after a shortinterval of repose.The prognosis is always more or less uncertain ; neither the vigoof the little patients, nor the weakness of the first attacks isguarantee against sudden death.The diagnosis is not always easily made, more particularly if thespasm sets in in the course of laryngeal catarrh or of some otheraffection of the larynx, or if the patient does not lose his consness, in which case a deceptive croupy cough may set in. The facthttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt