Diphtheria : its history, pathology, nature and treatment : an essay which received the first prize of the Medical Association of the State of Georgia, June, 1866 / by E.S. Gaillard.

  • Gaillard, E. S. (Edwin Samuel), 1827-1885.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diphtheria : its history, pathology, nature and treatment : an essay which received the first prize of the Medical Association of the State of Georgia, June, 1866 / by E.S. Gaillard. 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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    swelling of the lymphatic glands in diphtheria; in croup, as a rule, it never occurs. Diphtheria generally lasts two or three weeks; the mildest case, several days. , Croup usually terminates in one, two or three days; the mildest cases, in a few hours. (Craigid affirms, that it is never protracted beyond the eleventh day.) In diphtheria the exudation is fibrinous ; in croup it is albuminous. Dyspnoea (if it exists) in diphtheria is uniform ; in croup it is spasmodic. In the first, it is not produced, or increased by deglu- tition ; in the last, it generally is thus produced and thus increased. Diphtheria invades at all hours; croup invades (if it does not always commence) at night. Dampness and cold cannot produce diphtheria; they are the chief causes of croup. In true croup, anti-phlogistic treatment is demanded, and produces decided benefit. In diphtheria such treatment is forbidden, and produces decided danger, if not death. The testimony of Cullen, Craigi^, Cheyne, Home, Hosack, Gregory, Stokes, Alison, Watson, Farre and others, on croup, and that of Brettonneau, Trousseau, Barthez, Rilliet, Sanderson, Greenhow, Hart and others on diphtheria, will verify this declaration. The statistics of tracheotomy prove, that there is a resiliency, a constitutional elasticity in croup; that there is none in diphtheria. [Note : Trousseau, whose experience on this sub- ject, is the largest on record, states, that the indications for tracheotomy should be promptly and early met, unless the patient be suffering from diphtheria. This is now his rule.] In diphtheria we have, as a result, paralysis and other consequences manifested. In croup, we have nothing of this kind. In diphtheria foetor of the breath is constant and invariable ; in croup, it is slight, and seldom occurs. In croup, there is no “ dissolution” of the blood ; in diphtheria, it is a chief pathological characteristic. In diphtheria the constitutional symptoms precede the local; in croup, the local precede the constitutional. In diphtheria, the membranous exuda- tion of the fauces is almost always present, and can always be seen. In croup, this exudation does not even frequently take place, and when existing, can seldom be seen without the laryngoscope j in diphtheria, it is present as the rule ; in croup it exists as the excep- tion. In diphtheria, the exudation is thick and coriaceous; in croup, it is neither thick nor coriaceous. The membrane of croup