86 DISEASES OF THE TRACHEA AND BRONCHI. 



It is naturally to be desired that these remedies shall come iii as 

 direct contact with the bronchial mucous membrane, as they do with 

 that of the bladder or urethra, upon which they act immediately, when 

 excreted into the urine. Here saccharum myrrhae, taken dry, is recom- 

 mended. We may calculate upon a small portion, at least, of the drug 

 administered in this way, passing the glottis and reaching the trachea 

 and bronchi. The application of remedies in the form of gas is far 

 more serviceable. Thus we may boil tar either alone, or mixed with 

 water until the atmosphere is entirely impregnated with its fumes ; or 

 we may put half a drachm of turpentine in a bottle of hot water, and 

 cause the patient to inhale, for a quarter of an hour, four times a day, 

 through a mouth-piece, attached to the neck of the bottle. Of course 

 we can only expect success to follow this treatment when we apply it to 

 the cases to which it is adapted ; that is, where the mucous membrane 

 is the seat of excessive purulent secretion. In all other forms of bron- 

 chial catarrh it does harm. The bitters and tonics which are also given, 

 especially in bronchorrhcea, and among which are the polygala amara, 

 the lichen islandicus, the folia cardui benedicti, may have an influence 

 upon the mucous membrane of the stomach, or may improve the appe- 

 tite, regulate the digestion, and act beneficially upon the nutrition of 

 the body, which is then better able to bear the disease. Upon the 

 disease itself they scarcely have any material influence. 



5. In the treatment of bronchial catarrh in young children, who do 

 not know how to cough, and who are unequal to the emergency when 

 an obstacle in their air-passages requires a corresponding respiratory 

 effort, the symptomatic indication requires, first of all, the removal of 

 the accumulated secretion by means of an emetic, and secondly measures 

 which shall force the child to more vigorous respiratory efforts. Do not 

 let him sleep too much, and too profoundly. Put him in a bath, and 

 spirt cold water upon his chest while in the bath. Make him scream 

 by brushing the soles of the feet, if symptoms of obstruction of the 

 bronchi and emlarrassed oxygenation hi the vesicles set in. 



CHAPTER II. 



CROUPOUS INFLAMMATION OF THE TEACHEAL AND BRONClilAl, 

 MUCOUS MEMBRANE. 



ETIOLOGY. Not unfrequently, croupous laryngitis spreads into the 

 trachea and brcnchi ; and in like manner we shall find that croupous in- 

 flammation of the pulmonary vesicles almost always is continued into 

 terminal branches of the bronchial tubes. Besides this, however, there 

 occurs, although rarely, a croupous bronchitis, which appears primarily in 





