Dissertations, On cynanche trachealis or croup, and On the functions of the extreme capillary vessels in health and disease : to which were awarded the Boylston premiums for the years 1820 and 1823 / by William Sweetser.

  • Sweetser, William, 1797-1875.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dissertations, On cynanche trachealis or croup, and On the functions of the extreme capillary vessels in health and disease : to which were awarded the Boylston premiums for the years 1820 and 1823 / by William Sweetser. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    the parts within view are slender or without swelling. Likewise the posterior tendons of the neck are con- tracted and seem to be stretched as in tetanus. The voice likewise is disturbed or broken, the respiration is small, and there arises a frequent and violent draw- ing in of the breath. He likewise states that this species of quinsy often induces suffocation on the very day of its attack, and also on the second, third, and fourth. The older writers do not speak of it as being peculiar to children, which affords reason for believing that the Cynanche Laryngea might, in their time, have existed and been confounded, as it has been among ourselves until very lately, with croup. Boerhaave describes a species of quinsy where there is no tumour, nor any manifest disease about the fauces, and which he supposes to have its seat in the trachea. His description of its symptoms corresponds very well with those which are now known to occur in croup. He likewise speaks of it as affecting the upper part of the larynx particularly, and his com- mentator enumerates its diagnostic marks when affect- ing this part, and when especially confined to the trachea. We have no reason for believing that the early writers in medicine had any idea of the false membrane so frequently witnessed in those who die of croup. Their limited knowledge, however, of morbid anatomy will sufficiently account for their ignorance on this point. Whether (he Cynanche Trachealis is of more fre- quent occurrence now than formerly, cannot with certainty be decided. Many more cases have been recorded of late years, but whether this is owing to