On scarlatina : in a letter addressed to his son, in which is contained cases of angina sine efflorescentia, scarlatina anginosa, benigna, maligna vel angina gangrenosa, and their sequelae : also, observations on various therapeutic agents that have been employed in the treatment of scarlatina / by William Ingalls.

  • William Ingalls
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On scarlatina : in a letter addressed to his son, in which is contained cases of angina sine efflorescentia, scarlatina anginosa, benigna, maligna vel angina gangrenosa, and their sequelae : also, observations on various therapeutic agents that have been employed in the treatment of scarlatina / by William Ingalls. 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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    While the lad was in a state of convalcsence, the mother, anxious to take a house in another part of the city, desired my opinion on the propriety of removing him. On account of the danger of his going abroad so soon after the violent inflammation with which he had been afflicted, and particularly from its situation, exposure to cold air would almost inevitably produce a relapse, I was opposed to his removal. Giving some general directions, 1 discontinued my visits. In a short time after, the mother desired me to visit her son again in the house to which she had removed. I found the lad in a deplorable condition ; respiration restricted ; face flushed ; pulse rapid and small; utterance imperfect. In attempting to articulate, the emission of sound was scarcely audible. The only approximation to sound was a noise made by the lips exactly as is made when a person is endeavoring to light a tobacco pipe. The importance of the symptom will justify the introduction of so homely a figure, as it is strictly pathognomonic of a dis- eased state of the parts immediately concerned in the forma- tion of sound, and the consequent cessation of the vibratory motion of the vocal chords. The lad had been indisposed a few days: I apprised the mother of his danger, and that the issue would, by all ordinary means, be fatal. Laryngotomy was proposed and acceded to. While I was gone for instruments and such assistants as were necessary, the affection had so far depressed the vital powers, that when I arrived with the design of performing the opera- tion, the patient was in the article of death. Post mortem examination. A pustule as predicted [the prediction was founded on the nature and severity of the in- flammation in the first attack, and want of resonance when attempting to speak in the second] was found situated partly in the sinus laryngis and partly on the inferior vocal chord of the left side, about the bigness of a pea. It had the appear-