An inaugural dissertation on the suffocatio stridula, or croup : which, under the direction of the Reverend John Ewing, D.D. provost of the University of Pennsylvania ; by the authority of the Honourable Board of Trustees, and with the approbation of the respectable Faculty ; is submitted to their superior judgments, and to the candid examination of the learned, for a degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Robert G.W. Davidson, A.M. of Philadelphia, honorary member of the Philadelphia Medical Society ; 19th May, 1794.

  • Davidson, Robert Gamble Waiters, 1773-1804.
Date:
MDCCXCIV [1794]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the suffocatio stridula, or croup : which, under the direction of the Reverend John Ewing, D.D. provost of the University of Pennsylvania ; by the authority of the Honourable Board of Trustees, and with the approbation of the respectable Faculty ; is submitted to their superior judgments, and to the candid examination of the learned, for a degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Robert G.W. Davidson, A.M. of Philadelphia, honorary member of the Philadelphia Medical Society ; 19th May, 1794. 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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    and I entertain no doubt but that it does. Children's complaints are not eafily known, and it would be almoft: impoffible to difcover this difeafe in an infant, when there is fo little pain or difficulty of {wallowing, unlefs the fymptoms were very ftrongly marked. If children were able to make known their complaints at fo early an age, I have no doubt, we would meet with many cafes of the dif- eafe during the firft year of their exigence. Dr. Sauer, in a letter to Dr. Michae'is, giving an account of the difeafe as it appeared epidemic at Werthefm, has the follow- ing words in fupport of what has juft been faid. Infantes pluri- mos hoc morbo correptos vidi, qui materno adhuc alebantur lacte. Children of a full and grofs habit of body, who are of a lively difpofition, and apparently enjoy the beft health, are particularly li- able to the difeafe. In general, it is flow in its attack, though it fometimes comes on fuddenly. The child appears languid, droops, and becomes drowfy and heavy, refufes to join in any of its ufunl amufements, and becomes fad and peevifh. There is a flight de- gree of hoarfenefs, the prefence of which fymptom frequently mifleads parents into the opinion that the child lias only caught cold, and, on this account, they feldom apply for affiftance at that period. This is one reafon why the difeafe proves fo fatal. There is, however, very little or no cough, and when prefent, it is ihort and ftifling, and lefs convulfive than the catarrhal cough, and is attended with little or no expectoration. Deglutition is never affected. The child grows warmer than ufual, the tongue is covered with a white mucus, the pulfe is quick and hard, and if the child is able to exprefs its feelings, it prefently complains of a dull fenfatiort (feldom, if ever, of an acute pain) at the head of the trachea. The anterior part of the neck,anfwering to the upper part of the trachen, fvvells a little, and is painful when preffed ; but this pain is never acute. The difeafe makes its appearance in this way, for the firft two or three days, gradually becoming more alarming. The face is fometimes red and fwelled, though it is more frequently over- fpread with a deadly palenefs, or is of a livid colour. At times, the patient is thirlty, and affefted with ficknefs at ftomach and headach ; and the urine is with or without fediment. Thefe four laft fymptoms are adventitious circumilance.-, and by no means con- ftant attendants. The breathing, though but little impaired in the beginning, foon becomes more quick, difficult and laborious, feeming to threaten inftant fuffbeation. To prevent this, the moulders are raifed, and the mufcles of the abdomen contracted with great force, in order to dilate ;the thorax. There is no apparent caufc for this difficult refpiration, or the other fymptoms. On lec into the fauces, we obferve nothing worthy of remark, or different