Thymol 3j.
Creosoti 3ij.
Spiritus Lavandula ad Svj. Misce.
The air of the room can be rapidly purified by pouring a tablespoonful of Oil of Turpentine into a basin filled with hot water, or the oil may be sprinkled on vessels filled with dry sawdust so as to continuously keep the air saturated with its vapour. Terebene may be employed in the same manner.
Local applications to the fauces have been largely used, but there exists much scepticism about their real value. Any of the previously mentioned unirritating antiseptic sprays may be directly concentrated on the interior of the throat, as the r per cent. Carbolic. Masland employs a weak spray of pure Quinine directed to the interior of the nose. Dawson William: strongly advocates a 2 per cent. Resorcin spray. Peroxide of Hydrogen has been formerly much praised.
All of the substances used as sprays have been also employed as nasal douches and gargles for irrigation of the naso-pharynx, and in much stronger solutions they have been brushed or swabbed over the mucous membrane. The painful and barbarous routine of applying strong solutions of Carbolic Acid in Glycerin, Nitrate of Silver, Corrosive Sublimate and other powerful germicides is as irrational as it is dangerous.
Insufflations of dry powders as Quinine, Boric Acid, Iodoform, Ferrier's Snuff, 'Pannin and a host of other drugs are equally futile and discomfort ing. and the same may be said of ointments of all kinds for lubricating the nostrils. The least objectionable is an ointment which consists of i part of I odoform and r part of Eucalyptol in i6 parts of Vaseline. Should any irritable condition of the upper air-tract exist which is not relieved by the in ion Carbolic spray it may be coated over by means of the nebuliser with a film of pure liquid Paraffin containing a few grains of Menthol or Thymol per ounce.
Cocaine sprays, solutions or swabs should never be employed owing to the dangers of absorption and their tendency to induce a dry state of the mucous surface.
Stimulating liniments are recommended to keep up hyperaemia of the skin over the chest. if volatile antiseptics like Camphor and Eucalyptus be compounded with these, and the parts covered over after friction with cotton-wool, the child may thus be made to breathe an antiseptic atmos phere continuously. Garlic poultices are unquestionably valuable.
The writer's routine application is the following: Olei Eucalypti Mij.
Olei Cajuputi 5iv.
Olei ilienthee Pip. 3ij.
Linim. Camphonz ad :7,vj. Misce.
Of internal drugs for administration the list is practically an inexhaust ible one, but it may safely he affirmed, notwithstanding the host of vaunted specifics, that no known substance exercises any lethal or inhibitory action upon the causal microbe when administered in safe doses by the mouth.
Before referring to the commonly employed so-called specifics it may he pointed nut that most unobjectionable routine in most cases is to order a simple expectorant mixture to combat the bronchial catarrh which is invariably present, and which usually declares its presence before the characteristic whooping paroxysms have settled the diagnosis. The following mixture may be prescribed for a child of 6 to 7 years: R. Vini 1 pecacnanhce 3v.
Tiuet. 5ij.
Tine!. Camphora' Co. 3iv.
Syrupi Aqua Chloroformi ad Div. Misce.
Sumat 3j. pater iit die ex panlulo aqua, post cilnon.
Such a simple combination will do something to ward off chest complica tions, as the administration of ipecacuanha appears to exert some influence in preventing further catarrhal trouble when the open-air treatment is carried out from the first.
When the bronchial mucus remains tough and adhesive, there is no expectorant equal to Iodide of Sodium or and its administra tion certainly will in such cases minimise the tendency towards collapse of the air cells through plugging of the smaller bronchial tubes by viscid secretion; i dr. of either salt can he added to the above-mentioned mixture.