On the treatment of croup : a letter to Prof. A Jacob, M.D. / by Fordyce Barker, M.D.

  • Barker, B. Fordyce.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of croup : a letter to Prof. A Jacob, M.D. / by Fordyce Barker, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    When I read anything new on the treatment of croup, I first seek to inform myself as to what the author means by croup ; and as others may have the same desire, I will first define my own use of the term. The popu- lar use of the term includes several distinct diseases, as oedema of the glottis, laryngismus stridulus (or spasm of the glottis), catarrhal laryngitis (or false croup as it has been called), pseudo-membranous laryngitis, and the croup of diphtheria. No well-informed physician ever includes the first two of these affections in the term croup, but the term is in common usage as applied to the last three. Catarrhal laryngitis is a very common disease, every physician in active practice meeting with it every year, ■ more or less frequently. It sometimes precedes capillary bronchitis or pneumonia (and in my opinion the pseudo- membranous laryngitis), or some of the exanthemata, and it may terminate fatally, even when it does not occur as a precursor of the above-mentioned diseases. It 'has been called false croup because no false mem- ;brane has been formed in the larynx or trachea, while the most marked and characteristic symptoms are very similar to those occurring in the inflammation of the larynx and trachea, which results in the exudation of, a false membrane, or in a fibrin o-purulent secretion. Many authors have given the differential diagnosis between these two forms of laryngo-tracheitis with a minute dis- tinctness that 1 have never been able to recognize prac- tically. A careful study of several recent authors on '\ Diseases of Children on this point, has convinced me that the differential diagnosis, as given by them, be-