CLASS, II. 1. 2. o. OF SENSATION. 171 



difficulty of breathing; and gives this as a criterion to distinguish 

 the angina polyposa from the asthma acutum. Annals of Medi- 

 cine, Vol. I. But in the cases of true croup, peripneumonia 

 trachealis, I have seen with surprise the difficulty of respiration 

 to cease for a time, and return again with unabated violence. 

 These remissions of the difficult respiration are also mentioned 

 by Dr. Ferriar, who then terms it a spurious croup, but which 

 I suspect to be owing simply to the following circumstances. 



In a common catarrh, when the mucous membrane of the 

 nostrils is much inflamed, it becomes so thickened as totally to 

 prevent respiration through them; yet on suddenly warming the 

 skin, by drinking tea or by a fire, and sometimes by only cooling 

 the membrane of the nostrils by going into the cold air, the swel- 

 ling of this membrane will suddenly subside, so as to permit the 

 air to pass through quite easily for a time, as explained in ca- 

 tarrhus calidus. Class I. 1.2. 7. The same circumstance may 

 occur to the inflammation of the membrane, which lines the up- 

 per part of the trachea, or it may happen from the doubling of 

 the loosened upper part of the adhesive mucus. 



M. M. Frequent bleeding by the lancet or leeches. A few 

 grains of calomel. Seneca. Blisters about the throat. An 

 opiate in small quantity at night after previous evacuations. 

 Mercurial ointment. Warm bath. Breathing over the steam 

 of warm water, with or without volatile alkali, or ether, or vine- 

 gar. Particular attention should be used to keep the child raised 

 high in bed. Might the skin be kept agreeably warm, and at 

 the same time might quite cold air be breathed through a tube 

 coming from without, through a broken window, or hole in a 

 door? Or might the child be carried out into the cold air very 

 warmly clad? If a solution of sublimate could be safely used as 

 in gonorrhoea, Class II. 1. 5. 1? 



After evacuation by copious venesection, might not the fre- 

 quent application of ether externally to the throat be serviceable? 

 And where there occur intervals of easy respiration, might not 

 breathing over the dust of powdered Peruvian bark prevent a re- 

 turn of the thickening of the membrane, as described in Class II. 

 1.6. 7. 



5. Pleuritis. Pleurisy. Inflammation of the pleura, with 

 hard pulse, pain chiefly of the side, pungent, particularly increas- 

 ed during inspiration: lying on either side uneasy, the cough very 

 painful, dry at the beginning, afterwards moist, often bloody. 



One cause of pleurisy is probably a previous adhesion of the 

 lungs to a part of the pleura, which envelopes them. This in 

 many cases has been produced in infancy, by suffering children 

 to lie too long on one side. Or by placing them uniformly on one 



