Case of angina trachealis, or croup, successfully treated by Mons. Pinel, first physician to the Salpetriere Hospital at Paris (from a work just published by this author under the title of Medecine clinique, Paris, An. X. (1802)) : to which are added, some remarks relative to the treatment of this disorder, and particularly relative to the beneficial effects produced by the inhalation of aether-vapour / by Richard Pearson.

  • Pearson, Richard, 1765-1836.
Date:
[1802]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of angina trachealis, or croup, successfully treated by Mons. Pinel, first physician to the Salpetriere Hospital at Paris (from a work just published by this author under the title of Medecine clinique, Paris, An. X. (1802)) : to which are added, some remarks relative to the treatment of this disorder, and particularly relative to the beneficial effects produced by the inhalation of aether-vapour / by Richard Pearson. 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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    ( ^ ) part of the patient. All that is neceflary is to put the asther into a tea-cup, and hold the famg under the patient’s mouth, the warmth of the hand being lufficient to vaporize the sether evert in cold weather : or a handkerchief or fpunge may be moillened with the aether, and held near the mouth. But this laft is a wafteful mode of applying it *. It may be defirable in feme inftances, where vomits cannot be conveyed into the ftomach, to communicate an emetic power to the aether. This may be done by (baking it bi iflily in a phial with fome dried, pulverized fquill. It will extra6t the naufeating property of this drug, in the fliort fpace of ten or fifteen minutes, if a perfon keep fliaking the phial the whole of the time. At the fame time that ./Ether-Vapour (pure, or combined with the naufeating property of the fquill) is applied internally^ to check or fufpend the morbid procefs going forward in the tracheal tube; attempts fliould be made to excite inflammatory, and perhaps fuppurative ac- tion externally, by rubbing the neck with ftrong rubefacients, or by fcarifying the part which lies over the trachea, and afterwards fprinkling the wounded furface with pulverized can- lharides -or favin-powder: for, in a difeafe whole courfe is fo rapid, the common mode of blillering is too tardy in producing its effect. The life of mercury, which has been recommended in the croup, on fuch rational grounds, by Dr. Ru(h, of Philadelphia, and other phyficians, will by no means clafli with the adminif- tration of the .(Ether-Vapour and other meafures already mentioned ; but we would remark, that the firft effefl of the mercury muft be merely to relieve fome of the fymptoms of a fubordi- jiate rank only (fuch as a mucous colluvies in the inteflinal canal), and that a long feries of hours muft elapfe (even when ufed externally as well as internally) before it can affeft the abforbent veflels throughout their whole extent, fo as to produce in thofe ramifications, which are diftri- buted over the inner furface of the trachea, a new, a vigorous, and a falutary aflion. It is doubtlefs a valuable auxiliary ; but the other remedies before recommended, whole operation is fo much more direef and fpeedy, fhouldbe chiefly relied uponf. From the fuppofed analogy between the firft llage of the croup and peripneumony, bleeding both genera! and topical has been advifed by the majority of phyficians who have written on this fubjedt. But we would remark, Firft, That it refcmbles peripneumonia notha, rather than peripneumonia vera ; Secondly, That what is termed thefitft ftage, is a period of a very few hours } and Thirdly, That at the time when the croupal affedlion is diftindlly marked, the * It is noticing new to recommend the inlialation of vapours in the croup. Dr. Home long fince advifed the vapour of vinegar and hot water; and other writers on this difeafe have repeated the fame directions after him; but the adlion of the warm vapour of heated vinegar and water is very different from that of Ether-Vapour. On this occafion 1 (hall not attempt to fpecify tlicir dilfer- iCnce; for the prefent 1 (hall only remark, that I know of no confirmed cafe of croup wh«rc thofe warm acid, or fimply aqueous vapours effedled a cure ; whereas in Monf. Pincl’s patient, in whom the Ether-Vapour waslo freely and fo frequently employed, this happy event was accom- plifhed. f The effedt aimed at on the abforbent fyfiem, by the ufe of mercury in this difeafe, is produced in much lefs time, and ccnfequently with much better chance of fuccefs, by means of antimonial vomits frequently repeated. We have ourfelves had no experience of digitalis, wliich loine prac- titioners liave fo fuccelsfully employed in the croup. true iJ