Is tenacious, firm, adherent.
Membrane invades the larynx from above and progresses downward, and often is seen in patches.
Many cases of spasmodic croup are relieved entirely by using promptly a compress of ice cold water; should be worn day and night, and kept well covered with a woolen cloth. Apply to the throat only. Renew in one or two hours, if the first application does not give relief. Many families never resort to any other means for croup, being confident that this will give certain relief.
The following remedy I have used for years with the happiest result. Families that have croupy children keep it in the house, and I seldom have to be called out at night for croup by regular patrons. It can be put up at any homeopathic pharmacy. Do not try to get it at the drug store, as the ordinary drug clerk has no inkling of homeopathic trituration.
℞ Tartar Emetic, 2d trit. ʒ ij
Aconite Tincture, gtts. ij
Mix. Dry out, triturate half an hour. Put six grains in twelve tea-spoons of water, and give in tea-spoonful doses every ten or fifteen minutes. It is not necessary that the emetic effect of the drug should be secured. It has a specific action upon the air passages, and is an invaluable remedy in many of the acute affections of throat and lungs. Aconite alone gives relief frequently, and many physicians use no other remedy. The two together in the above preparation have seldom failed me, and as an old friend I recommend it. During the day following the attack give a tea-spoonful of the remedy once in two hours. Keep the child on a light diet and free from exposure.
In membranous or diphtheritic croup, the services of a physician will always be secured if possible.
Proto-iodide of mercury is my “sheet anchor” for both these affections. Of this I give the second trituration in grain doses every two hours. Often give the prescription recommended for spasmodic croup at the same time, a tea-spoonful every twenty or thirty minutes. Other remedies, such as iodine, bromine, nitrate of amyl, bichromate of potassa, phosphorus, etc., are used as the symptoms indicate; but the proto-iodide or bin-iodide of mercury will meet the exigencies of more cases than any other one known remedy. Of course hot baths, hot fomentations and cold compresses must be brought into requisition. I have seen great relief, even where the disease seemed in the last stages, from a poultice of fresh phytolacca (pokeroot), applied to the throat. This is made by pounding the root and mixing it with hot flaxseed or meal poultice. Not being able to procure the root, fluid extract can be used.
Diphtheria is now considered an infectious disease, produced by bacteria or infusoria that inoculate the patient. Many claim to be able to cure the disease by local means only, while the invasion is only local, before the entire system is poisoned. A child in robust health will usually resist the infection. The following methods of treatment are highly vaunted for their efficacy. Both of the drugs recommended are invaluable in destroying infusoria, and are used in the hands of eminent practitioners with success: