Atlas and abstract of the diseases of the larynx / L. Grünwald ; edited by Charles P. Grayson.

  • Grünwald, L.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Atlas and abstract of the diseases of the larynx / L. Grünwald ; edited by Charles P. Grayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    40/316 (page 32)
    local applications, may accomplish a good deal, and it is the latter that is too often neglected. A patient suffering from laryngeal trouble should not be allowed to talk, any more than a man with a sore foot is allowed to walk : the first requisite for the cure of an inflamed or injured organ is absolute rest, which incidentally removes one of the commonest causes, overexertion. Loud talking should, therefore, be forbidden altogether; the patient should converse as little as possible and always in a whisper.1 The only exceptions are certain psychical or essential paralyses, when it is desired to restore the functional activity of the organ. Smoking and drinking, and the eating of highly seasoned food, must be restricted or prohibited entirely, at least in the acute and subacute stages. The digestion must be regulated; this is of no small importance, as constipation tends to aggravate peripheral hyperemias. Cough due to disease of higher or deeper adjoining organs (nose and throat, lungs and bronchi) must be checked as much as possible, for it is one of the worst mechanical irritants of the larynx. Still more injurious is the hawking so often excited by disturbances of secretion in the upper air-passages (nose and nasopharynx). Combined with the dripping of pus and mucus on the larynx from above, it is one of the commonest causes of the various forms of chronic laryn- geal catarrh. The first step in the treatment of this dis- ease, therefore, should be a careful examination of the upper organs; often the entire treatment may consist ex- clusively in removing anomalies in those organs. Local treatment is indicated '.first, in the comparatively rare primary diseases of the larynx; secondly, whenever mechanical alterations require mechanical interference. Liquids, especially astringents, should be applied di- 1 [If even the privilege of whispering is permitted, it is too often apt to be abused. Besides, whispering is but little, if at all, less ob- jectionable than actual phonatlon.—Ed.]