Report of the Scientific Committee appointed by the Royal Medical & Chirurgical Society to investigate the relations between membranous croup and diphtheria.

  • Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Scientific Committee appointed by the Royal Medical & Chirurgical Society to investigate the relations between membranous croup and diphtheria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    can take as a true standard for comparison are those in which the diphtheritic nature is proved by their contagious origin or results, and such cases are necessarily few. The great fatality which attends membranous laryngitis, as such, renders any inference from the sequelae of compara- tively small value. This is especially the case with regard to the paralysis of the soft palate which is characteristic of diphtheria. It is indeed very doubtful whether this ever occurs even in cases of true diphtheria where the exudation is limited to the air passages; moreover, it occurs in only a small proportion of cases of well-marked faucial diphtheria. These two facts taken together—viz. the very high mortality and the comparative infrequency of paralysis—appear to minimise the value of any conclusions derived from the con- sideration of this sequela. But it is enough to state that no case of paralysis following membranous laryngitis has been reported to the Committee, or come under their notice. The mortality in the cases of laryngeal membranous exudation, to which reference has just been made, was in the cases collected With faucial. Without faucial. Dr. Dickinson’s . Dr. Fagge’s . Dr. Gee’s 17 of 23 23 of 25 41 of 42 72 p. c. 92 p. c. 98 p. c. 7 of 9 18 of 18 19 of 21 77‘7 p. c. 100 p. c. 90-5 p. c. Total mortality . 81 of 90 90 p. c. 44 of 48 91-6 p. c. Even in some of the cases of recovery the presence of mem- brane actually in the larynx and trachea was doubtful. The mortality where laryngeal membrane is found, whether with or without faucial, is 90 per cent. Mode of onset. Do the symptoms which attend the onset, the duration of these before the occurrence of croupal symptoms, and the rapidity with which they reach a maximum, afford any ground of distinction ? 2