CROUP. Syn. Cynan′che laryn′′gea, C. suffoca′tiva, C. trachea′lis, L. An inflammatory disease affecting the larynx and trachea.
Symp. A permanently laborious and suffocative breathing, accompanied by wheezing, cough, a peculiar shrillness of the voice, and more or less expectoration of purulent matter, which continually threatens suffocation. There are two varieties, acute croup and chronic croup. The latter is very rare.
Treat. Bleeding by leeches or cupping, over the region of the trachea, should be immediately had recourse to, when the symptoms are urgent; or violent local irritants, as pieces of lint dipped in strong acetic acid, or blisters, may be applied to the same part. In weakly subjects of irritable constitution bleeding should be avoided. Dr Larroque recommends repeated vomiting in the croup of children; and M. Marotte and M. Boudet have adopted this plan with great success. The treatment consists in making the patient attacked with croup vomit a great number of times within the day, so as to detach the pseudo-membrane from the larynx nearly as
fast as it is formed. For this purpose M. Marotte employs one or other of the following formulæ:—
1. Tartar emetic, 11⁄2 gr.; syrup of ipecacuanha, 1 oz.; water, 2 oz.
2. Impure emetine, 3 gr.; syrup of ipecacuanha and water, of each 11⁄2 oz.
These draughts are administered by spoonfuls every ten minutes, until there has been a sufficient number of vomitings. In this manner he says he has been always able to make the patient expectorate a certain quantity of false membrane. This treatment is accompanied by the use of small doses of calomel, leeches to the throat, and blisters to the nape of the neck; but it is the opinion of M. Marotte that the vomitings alone effect the cure. Out of 25 cases that occurred at the Hôpital des Enfans[Enfants], the only authenticated case of cure among all these was effected by emetics. (M. Boudet.)
The croup is a very dangerous disease, and medical aid should be immediately sought wherever it can be procured. It is principally confined to infancy, or to children under 9 years of age; but occasionally attacks adults. One of our early friends, a young medical practitioner of great promise, died of it prematurely, after only about 20 hours’ illness.
CROWDIE. Mix the liquor in which a leg of mutton has been boiled with half a pint of oatmeal, and two onions cut very fine; and add pepper and salt. Make the oatmeal into a paste with a little of the liquor over the fire, stir in the remainder of the ingredients, and let them boil gently for twenty minutes. This forms a very nutritious and cheap dish.
CROWING, IN CHILDREN. Syn. Childcrowing. Spurious croup. Spasmodic croup. This very formidable disorder almost always occurs during teething. It comes on in paroxysms. In the intervals between the spasms the respiration is quite natural; but during the attack there is great difficulty of breathing accompanied with a crowing noise, and with violent struggling on the part of the little sufferer. Convulsions and faintness also sometimes occur. In his ‘Advice to a Mother’ Mr Chavasse prescribes the following treatment:—