The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV | Page 6

adenoid tissue in its nose to cause this kind of
persistent cough. This has been proved many times.
It is not only useless but positively harmful to give these children
cough remedies. The cause of the cough must be found and treated. The
cough may be indirectly caused by anemia (poor blood) or heart or
stomach trouble, or it may have a number of other causes. Whatever it
is it must be found by a careful physical examination or a number of
careful physical examinations, because these cases are as a rule obscure
and difficult to diagnose, and even the most expert examiner cannot
always tell where the trouble is without seeing the child a number of
times. The parents must therefore have patience and confidence in the
physician and must aid him all they can by watching and reporting all
the symptoms, etc., to him. (See article on Adenoids).
SUMMARY:--
Coughs that resist careful treatment are not "ordinary coughs."
Coughs of this type require special medical care.
The usual cough medicines are not only useless in these coughs, but
dangerous. Don't give them.
ACUTE CATARRHAL LARYNGITIS: SPASMODIC CROUP:
FALSE CROUP

Croup is one of the common diseases of childhood. It usually follows a
catarrhal "cold in the head" with a cough. Croup is most frequently
associated with large tonsils and adenoids. It may come on gradually or
it may occur suddenly. There is always fever with croup. One of the
first symptoms is a hard, dry, croupy, barking cough, which gets worse
toward night. If it occurs suddenly, the child will wake about midnight
with the characteristic croupy cough. The disease may go no further
than this and under the proper treatment is well in a few days. In other
cases, however, there develops marked interference with breathing.
Every inspiration is accompanied by a loud hissing or "crowing" sound.
This feature of the disease is one that frightens the parents, though it
seldom means anything serious. The child sits up in bed, frightened,
and struggles for breath. It may clutch its throat with its hands as if
something was tied round its neck. The lips may become slightly blue
and the perspiration appears upon the child's brow. After some time,--it
may be two or three hours,--the attack wears away and the child goes to
sleep. Next morning it wakes up apparently well except for the croupy
cough. The attack may repeat itself the next night and mildly on the
third night.
Treatment.--The object of treatment during an acute attack, when the
child is struggling for breath, is to relax quickly the spasm of the larynx
which interferes with the breathing. The simplest way is to give the
child a teaspoonful of the fresh syrup of ipecac. If the child does not
vomit in fifteen minutes, give another teaspoonful and keep on giving it
every fifteen minutes till the child vomits. One or two doses is usually
enough, but it must be given till the child vomits.
If the attack comes suddenly during the night and there is no syrup of
ipecac in the house, the physician should be sent for at once and
informed that the child probably has croup, so he may know what to
take with him. While waiting for the physician the mother should apply
over the front of the neck (in the region of Adam's apple), hot
applications. These are best made of flannel wrung out of quite hot
water every two or three minutes: also a hot mustard foot bath. When
the physician takes charge of the case he will also direct the treatment
for the following day in order that the attack of the next night may be a

very mild one, if it should came at all.
Children who have a tendency to frequent attacks of croup should
receive the same attention as the children do who are subject to attacks
of tonsilitis and acute catarrhal rhinitis.
SUMMARY:--
1st. Spasmodic Croup always requires prompt and efficient treatment.
2nd. It is called "false" croup, because "true" croup is always
diphtheritic and is a very serious disease.
3rd. For that reason a physician should always be called because if it is
"true" croup antitoxin must be given at once.
4th. Don't worry unnecessarily because, though "spasmodic croup" can
make the child look exceedingly sick for a very short time, an
uncomplicated case in a healthy child is seldom if ever dangerous.
TONSILITIS: ANGINA: "SORE THROAT"
This is one of the frequent diseases of childhood. We rarely see it in
infants. It is caused by inhaling air which contains poisonous germs.
These germs quickly develop when conditions are favorable. They
lodge in the pores or follicles of the tonsils and set up an active
inflammation. The tonsils swell up and the follicles exude a thick fluid
which