The above ingredients are all excellent for sore throat and it is an old
tried remedy and can easily be obtained. If it is too strong dilute with
warm water to the desired strength.
SWELLING OF THE GLOTTIS. (Oedematous Laryngitis. Oedma of the
Glottis).--Swelling or oedma of the glottis or more correctly of the
structure which forms the glottis, is a very serious affection. It may
follow acute laryngitis or may be met with in chronic diseases of the
larynx and from other diseases. It is dangerous.
Symptoms.--Difficulty of breathing which increases in intensity so that
the condition becomes very serious in a short time. There is whistling
breathing, the voice is husky and disappears.
Acute Laryngitis.--Inhalations and sprays.
Menthol 10 grains
Oil of pine 1 dram
Tincture of benzion 1 dram
Liquid alboline 2 ounces
Make a solution. Use one teaspoonful in a pint of boiling water; inhale
with a cone placed over the dish or put a shawl over the head and dish and
inhale the steam. Or this one to inhale same way:
Tincture of benzoin 1 dram
Oil of tar 1 drain
Liquid alboline 2 ounces
Make a solution and use one teaspoonful to a pint of boiling water as
above.
It may be necessary in order to save life, to have a physician make an
opening by incision into the windpipe for the admission of air into the
lungs. This process is called Tracheotomy.
Diet in Laryngitis.--Hard and dry toasts should be avoided, for they give
pain on being swallowed, same reason applies to highly seasoned foods.
Milk, custards, eggs, scraped beef may be taken. Difficulty in swallowing
may be overcome by allowing the patient to lie flat on the bed, etc., with
his face over the edge. Food can be sucked through the tube from a vessel
placed below; or the patient can lean forward while eating.
"CHILD CROWING" (Spasm of the Glottis.)--This is usually peculiar to
children.
[RESPIRATORY DISEASES 27]
Cause.--It is purely a nervous affection and it occurs between six months
and three years, and is most commonly seen in children with rickets.
Symptoms.--It may come in the night or day; or when the child awakes. The
breathing is arrested, the child struggles for breath, the face is
flushed, and then with a sudden relaxation of the spasm, the air is drawn
into the lungs with a high pitched crowing sound. Convulsions may occur.
Death rarely occurs. There may be many attacks during the day.
PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT of Child Crowing. Preventive.--The gums should be
carefully examined and if they are swollen and hot they should be lanced.
The bowels should be carefully regulated, and as these children are
usually of a delicate nature and afflicted with rickets, nourishing food
and the treatment in diet and medicine should be given for rickets. Cod
liver oil is a good general remedy. (See rickets).
Cold Sponging.--In severe cases, the child should be placed in a warm bath
tub and the back and chest thoroughly sponged for a minute or two with
cold water. This plan may be used even when a child is in a paroxysm,
though the attack is severe and the child looks blue, it is much better
than to dash cold water in the face. Sometimes the attack can be stopped
by introducing the finger far back into the throat.
CROUP, Spasmodic.--This disease gives the parents a terrible shock if they
have never seen any attacks of the kind. The symptoms which attend the
attack are out of all proportion to the real danger. It is generally the
result of exposure to cold or to the cold wind. Irritating, undigested
food, often causes it.
Symptoms.--Usually the child goes to bed perfectly well, or has a slight
cold and wakes up an hour or two later, coughing and gasping for breath,
due to a spasm in the wind pipe. The cough is shrill, more like a bark;
the cough is repeated at intervals and soon the patient breathes quickly
and laboriously. It must sit up for it can breathe easier sitting. The
voice is oftentimes nearly or quite lost, or at least only a hoarse
whisper; the face is bluish or perspiring. The spasm lasts for a variable
period, but rarely exceeds one-half hour, sometimes only a few minutes.
The croupy cough and oppressed breathing may last longer than this, but
these too subside after a time, after which the child drops to sleep and
usually rests quietly for the rest of the night. There is a tendency to
recurrence on succeeding night unless obviated by treatment.
Treatment. Preventive.--Guard against such children's exposure to cold
winds and dampness, dress them warmly. The living and sleeping rooms
should not be too warm. Do not give them food hard to digest at any time,
especially before bedtime. Foods hard to digest frequently cause the
attack.
[28 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
MOTHERS' REMEDIES. Croup, Cold Application for.--"Apply to throat a
flannel wrung out of cold water, lay a dry cloth over it." This is an
excellent remedy for a mother to try in case of an emergency when no other
medicine can be obtained. This very often will relieve a child until other
remedies can be secured and has been known to save many children's lives:
The cold water helps to draw the blood away from the larynx and air
passages and also dilates the tubes and gives relief. Take great care not
to wet the child, as this will cause it to take more cold and may prove
fatal.
2. Croup, Sure Cure for.--"Give child anything that will make it vomit,
soak feet in hot water, apply onion drafts to bottom of feet, roast onions
and put on the chest, keep warm. My mother has cured me at least one
hundred times with the above remedy. She generally gave me pig's foot oil,
or oil from the feet of a chicken, sometimes melted lard. Croup has to be
attended to at once or it is fatal with the child." This is a very good
remedy.
3. Croup, Immediate Relief from Steaming.--"Put a small shawl over the
child's head to retain steam, then put a small chunk of unslaked lime in a
bowl of water under shawl. The steam affords immediate relief, usually, if
child inhales it." This is very good; shawl should cover the child's head
and bowl in which lime is dissolved.
4. Croup, for Baby or Older Child.--"Take a teaspoonful alum, pulverize it
and sprinkle it on the whites of two fresh eggs in a cup or glass, let it
stand for a few minutes, until the combination has turned to water, or
water is produced; then give one-half teaspoonful to a child six months
old or less and increase the dose to one teaspoonful for older children,
and repeat the dose in fifteen or thirty minutes as the case may require.
Remarks: From personal experience in my own and neighbors' families, I
have never known a case where it did not bring relief and cure. The dose
must produce vomiting."
5. Croup, Remedy that Never Fails.--"Two tablespoonfuls of liquor or
brandy and one-quarter teaspoonful of glycerin, one teaspoonful of sugar,
one tablespoonful of water; stir up well and give one teaspoonful every
hour or oftener if necessary. Then at same time take a flannel and soak
well in cold water, wring it gently and put around neck with a heavy, dry
flannel over the damp one. If damp flannel becomes hot take it off, dampen
it in more cold water and apply again, and so on until relieved. Do not
allow the patient to get chilled. Better results are obtained if patient
will go to bed. Remarks: I have used this in my family, and have always
found it to be the best croup cure I have ever seen, and it will be found
to give immediate relief. The external application is extremely good."
6. Croup, Coal Oil (kerosene) and Sugar for.--"Coal oil and sugar; put a
few drops on a teaspoonful of sugar." The coal oil produces vomiting,
relieving the trouble. If the first dose does not have this effect upon
the child, repeat it.
[RESPIRATORY DISEASES 29]
7. Croup, Pork and Onion Poultice for.--"Put pork and onions on the
throat. Drink plenty of hot water." Bind the pork and onions on the
throat, acting as a poultice. The virtue of this can be increased by
cooking the onions and pork together. Onion syrup may be given internally
to produce vomiting, even in very small babies.
8. Croup, Bloodroot for.--"One teaspoonful powdered bloodroot mixed with
molasses or sugar. Have taken this myself and it relieved at once. If one
dose does not seem enough it may be repeated." This is a very effective
remedy, but is very weakening. Care should be taken not to repeat dose any
oftener than absolutely necessary.
9. Croup, Time Honored Remedy for.--"Pulverized alum and sugar or honey or
molasses; mix together and give half teaspoonful doses or less. For
infants use only in emergency cases." This is one of the good
old-fashioned remedies that nearly every mother has used. It acts simply
by producing vomiting and causing the air tubes to relax. Repeat in five
to twenty minutes until it causes vomiting.
10. Croup, Ipecac for.--"One-third teaspoonful of powdered ipecac
dissolved in one teaspoonful of water, one tablespoonful of sugar; pour on
one teacupful of boiling water and let boil down to a half cup, Dose: One
teaspoonful for adults; children in proportion every two hours; or, if
needed to vomit children give again in ten or fifteen minutes." If you
cannot secure the powdered ipecac, the syrup can be bought at any drug
store, and is already prepared, Dose: Ten to fifteen drops as the case may
need.
11. Croup, Vaselin for.--"Vaselin rubbed on the chest, cover with a hot
flannel, and take 1/4 teaspoonful of vaselin internally occasionally."
Dissolve vaselin and repeat dose if necessary to produce vomiting.
12. Croup, Ice Application for.--"Ice applied to the throat is almost
instant relief." It is best to break the ice up fine and sprinkle salt on
same, putting it in a cheese cloth bag, binding on the throat with a
flannel, and change as soon as it shows signs of wetting.
13. Croup, Salt for.--"Parched salt put on the throat hot." The parched
salt acts the same as mustard plaster, by producing a redness on the
throat. Salt is something that we can always have on hand and by using
this remedy we are always prepared for an emergency in case of croup.
14. Croup, Castor Oil Breaks up.--"Castor oil, given before bedtime, is
good. Dose.--From one-half to one teaspoonful. I have taken this when I
was small." Castor oil is good when the bowels are constipated or the
stomach is full.
15. Croup, Coal Oil, Turpentine and Snuff, a Canadian Remedy for.--"A
little coal oil and a few drops of turpentine soaked up by snuff, and used
as plaster. Makes the child sneeze after a few minutes. The poultice
loosens the phlegm and the sneezing throws it off."
[30 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Croup.--Active. 1. Dr. Douglas says wring cloths
out of cold water and apply very freely to the throat, and recommends the
following syrup:
Syrup of Ipecac 3 fluid drams
Hive Syrup 4 fluid drams
Water 1-1/2 ounces
Mix, and give one teaspoonful every half hour until the child vomits, then
repeat the dose every two hours as needed.
2. Place the child in a hot bath, wrap hot or cold cloths about the throat
and put one teaspoonful of common soda in a glass of water and give one
teaspoonful every fifteen minutes until relieved.
3. Dr. Holt of New York, says.--The room should be very warm, hot cloths
or poultices should be applied over the throat (Adam's apple and below)
and either a croup kettle or ordinary teakettle kept boiling in the room.
This is more efficacious if the child is placed in a tent made by a raised
umbrella or some like method with a sheet thrown over it, and the steam
introduced beneath the tent. If the symptoms' are urgent ten drops of the
syrup of ipecac should be given every fifteen minutes until free vomiting
occurs.
Whenever the symptoms reach a point where the breathing becomes difficult,
a doctor should be summoned without delay. It might be some other disease.
4. Home Treatment.--One-half teaspoonful of alum mixed with molasses or
honey will produce vomiting and help. This is very good when the croup is
due to indigestion. At the same time, fry onions in lard and put them on
the neck in front, or hot wet cloths may do. The alum can be given once or
twice if necessary, half an hour apart, about in one-fourth or one-half
the first dose.
5. Goose grease, or lard dissolved, and enough given to produce vomiting
will do good. This idea is not only to cause vomiting but to cause a sick
feeling after and at that time, which will cause the spasms to relax. A
very good thing to do in addition is to put the child's feet in hot water,
while local applications are put on the throat. These things tend to relax
the muscles and this relieves the spasm.
6. Steam is Very Useful. It relaxes the spasm by local contact and by
producing general sweating. Cover the child's head and a pitcher with a
shawl and inhale the steam from the boiling water in pitcher. You can put
in the pitcher one teaspoonful of oil of tar or one to two teaspoonfuls of
tincture of benzoin. This can be kept up for some time.
COLD IN THE CHEST. (Acute Bronchitis. Inflammation of Bronchial Tubes).--
This is an acute inflammation of the larger and medium sized bronchial
tubes.
[RESPIRATORY DISEASES 31]
Causes.--Youth and old age are more predisposed to it. Lack of fresh air
and exercise, dusty work, poor general health, dampness and changeable
weather in winter and early spring. It may be secondary to cold,
pharyngitis, measles, typhoid fever, malaria, asthma, and heart disease.
Symptoms.--There is a feeling of oppression with chilliness and pain in
the back, a dry, tight feeling beneath the breastbone with a dry harsh
cough. This may cause headache and pain, and a raw feeling in the chest,
chiefly in front. There may be a temperature of one hundred or one hundred
three or less. After a few days there is a thick, sticky secretion; it is
profuse. The other symptoms, except the cough, subside. This generally
stops in ten days in a favorable case, or it may become chronic. In
infants or old people it may extend to the smaller tubes causing
broncho-pneumonia. There is more danger in infants than in older people.
MOTHERS' REMEDIES. Bronchitis, Camphor and Lard for.--1. "Grease a cloth
well with lard to which has been added some camphor gum, then sprinkle on
some dry baking soda and lay it on the chest. The camphor and lard should
be made into a salve, then put on the soda. The lard and camphor gum
penetrates the affected parts, relieving the inflammation and tightness in
the chest. It is well in children to put a layer of cotton cloth over the
chest keeping them warm and getting better results from the remedy."