The pathology of the membrane of the larynx and bronchia.

  • John Cheyne
Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology of the membrane of the larynx and bronchia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    There is a circumstance mentioned in the history of the disease, which I have not seen explained. I allude to the fatal exacerbation which sometimes follows a considerable remis- sion of the symptoms, during the second stage. Perhaps this ought to be attributed rather to a mechanical, than to a spasmodic affection of the parts. It sometimes takes place after the expectoration of part of the membrane, and I suppose that the connection of the remainder with the trachea is loosened; so that, in taking a full inspiration, the detached portion acts as a valve, shutting up the tube, and suddenly suffocating the child. This explanation is the more probable, as, in dissection, it is not un- common to find the adventitious membrane, in some one part, detached from the larynx. In Croup there is increased action, effusion, laborious respiration, circulation of blood with the venous colour, sensorial debility, and death. This is the course of the disease. It may be presumed, as we are able to trace the effects of the increased action so low in the bronchial tubes, that the whole internal surface of the lungs is affected in the same manner* and that the membrane lining the air vesicles, is consequently thickened, and no longer well adapted for the absorption of the oxygenous part of the air, or the transmission of the carbone which the blood throws off; and it is,
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