Croup. Croupous (^Pseudo- Membranous') Laryngitis. 137 



Postmortem Appearances. If the animal has died suffocated, the 

 lungs and right side of the heart will be gorged with blood ; if in 

 a stupor (coma) , attendant on brain poisoning with venous blood, 

 the veins will be specially engorged. The mucous membrane of 

 the larynx has a more vivid arborescent redness than in ordi- 

 nary laryngitis but the special feature is the presence of false 

 membranes. These layers of ei^uded material are almost confined 

 to the air passages. They may extend tb the soft palate and nose 

 in an upward direction and to the trachea and bronchial tubes in 

 a downward, but they rarely exist in the mouth, pharynx, or 

 gullet like the false membranes of diphtheria. 



Characters of the false m-embranes. These are gray or yellowish 

 white, though they may be reddened in patches or streaks, 

 They vary in consistency from that of glairy mucus to a firm layer 

 as of dense fibrine, and become more adherent as they are of 

 older standing. Sometimes they are partially detached, the free 

 end of the shreds floating in the larynx. The deep or attached 

 surface presents redness in points, in streaks, or as ramifications 

 very visible if the membrane is held up between the eye and the 

 light. They vary in thickness from half to a line. Delafond has 

 found these membranes in the lower animals to be mostly formed 

 of fibrine, with a little albumen, and traces of alkaline and 

 earthy salts. 



Treatment. This must be prompt and energetic. Wet cloths 

 as hot as the hands can bear, wrapped around the throat and neck, 

 and replaced as they cool, will usually arrest the spasm. If this 

 fails, ether or chloroform by inhalation or chloral hydrate by in- 

 jection may be employed with caution. The action of the bowels 

 must be secured by salines (sulphate of soda J^ to i lb) or oil 

 (linseed oil J^ to i pint) and injections of warm water. Sulphate 

 of soda should be thereafter given in half ounce doses twice daily, 

 or nitrate or acetate of potass may be substituted. They are 

 advantageously given in linseed decoction and may be combined 

 with laudanum, (_% ounce), belladonna, or other agent to check 

 the spasms. Spraying with a solution of cocaine (3 : 100), or 

 its application on a swab on the end of a whalebone staff, bent at 

 the end, will often relieve the violent symptoms and may be re- 

 peated when necessary. 



A blister (mustard poultice) should be applied at first either to 



