ox CROUP IN YOUNG CATTLE. 
741 
be as tranquil as they were before the experiment. On the follow¬ 
ing morning we killed the ass for anatomical purposes. The trachea 
was in its perfectly natural state. 
A fortnight afterwards I injected into the larynx of the four dogs 
that had been the subjects of the preceding experiments a small 
glass of water acidulated with a fifteenth part of sulphuric acid. 
They began to shew how much they suffered immediately after the 
injection was made, although, notwithstanding our precautions, 
only a very small part of the liquid had reached the larynx. Two 
of them coughed a great deal, and one of them began to vomit. 
One hour afterwards they were quite tranquil. We watched them 
four hours without perceiving any thing remarkable about them. In 
the evening they had their usual spirits, and as good an appetite 
as usual. During several days nothing remarkable occurred. 
These last experiments seemed to prove that it was not so easy 
as some believed to produce croup in the quadruped. They also 
proved how much the danger had been exaggerated of leaving ani¬ 
mals in places where this or similar gases were developed. It is 
very probable that in many cases these fumigations would be more 
salutary than injurious. 
So croup is more easily cured in quadrupeds than in the human 
being ? The most interesting point of this malady is, doubtless, its 
treatment. Dr. Saissy has tried on numerous animals various me¬ 
thods of cure, and he has arrived at this conclusion:— 
1. That animals to which croup has been artificially communi¬ 
cated die if they are abandoned to the power of nature alone. 
2. The greater part of the remedies vaunted for curing natural 
croup produce no good effect on artificial croup. 
3. Quinine in substance, seconded by on infusion of mint, tri¬ 
umphs over the disease when artificially produced. 
4. Finally, the success of the quinine has led to the belief that this 
tonic, assisted by mint—preceded or accompanied by vomits, vesi- 
catories, sinapisms, and revulsive measures generally—does a 
thou.sand times better in the essentially acute croup which attacks the 
human being, than the POLYGOLA Seneka, the rattle-snake root, 
ammonia, and any of the other medicaments whose power is found 
so often to fail. 
But will this method of proceeding suit the larger animals ? Ex¬ 
perience alone can decide this question. I am inclined to think 
that, considering the actual state of our knowledge on this point, 
the rapid march of the disease, and the difficulty of recognizing it 
in its early state, and when alone there is any certainty about tlie 
matter, the animals that will serve for the food of man and are at¬ 
tacked by croup well characterized should be delivered to the butclier. 
Their cure is, in effect, exceedingly uncertain, and there is nothing 
VOL. XIII. 5 F 
