Many cases are recorded of the death of children from the ingestion of
boiling water; an accident which will be always liable to occur, as long
as the peasant allows his family to quench their thirst by drinking the
cold water through the spout of the tea kettle. It has been very
generally supposed that fatal effects have, on these occasions,
supervened the high state of inflammation produced in the æsophagus and
stomach by the boiling liquid. _Dr. Marshall Hall_ has, however, lately
published a very interesting paper on this subject, in the twelfth
volume of the _Medico-Chirurgical Transactions_; from which it would
appear, that the patient, under these circumstances, actually dies of
suffocation as in croup; and that the boiling water is arrested in its
progress to the stomach by the convulsive action of the muscles of the
pharynx. In passing, however, to the posterior part of the mouth, it
scalds the _epiglottis_, and _glottis_, which afterwards become more and
more swollen, until at length the _rima glottidis_, or orifice into the
larynx, becomes completely obstructed. Here then we have a new instance
in which the operation of laryngotomy, or of tracheotomy, may be
performed with the effect of preventing impending suffocation, and
perhaps of saving life. _Dr. Marshall Hall_ relates four cases in
illustration of this interesting fact; of which one recovered from
imminent suffocation immediately after screaming[327]; two died from
suffocation, one 10, the other 17 hours, after the accident; the fourth
was completely relieved by the operation of tracheotomy, and survived 34
hours, but died, exhausted by the irritation produced by the primary
affection.