DIPHTHERIA AND CROUP CURE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1625, 2 August 1887, Page 3

DIPHTHERIA AND CROUP CURE.

In a report to the French Academy of Medicine, Dr Dolthell stated that the vapors of lipufd tar and turpentine would dissolve the fibrinous exhalations which choke up the throat m croup and diphtheria; He described the process thus : — " Take equal parts (say two tablespoonfule) of turpentine and liquid tar, put them into a tin pan or cup and set fire to the mixture, taking care to have a large pan under it as a safeguard againßt tire. A dense resinous smoke arises making the room dark. The patient immediately seems to experience relief ; the chocking and the ra'tle stop ; the patient falls into a Blumber and seems to Inhale the smoke with pleasure, The nftrinoua membrane soon becomes detached, and the patient coughs up miorobledes. These, when caught m a glass, may be seen to dleßolve In the smoke In the course of three or four days the patient eatirely reoovera. " The above information has been largely copied into tho papera, and with it I lie relief and oure of Ruth Lock wood, a nine-year-old child, who ttas dangerously sick with diphtheria, but the decease redtly yielded to tha above mode of treatment, and the ohild wai cured. A case occurring m Boaton recently is worthy of note at this particular time, when the two forma of disease are quite prevalent. The facts m the caae, m brief, are as follows : — Jennie Brown, a child of some five years of age, was dangerously sick with diphtheria; her attending physician had no hopes ot her reoorery ; he declared to a person that out of tbo many oases under his treatment throe wore beyon 1 cure, and little Jennie was one of that number. The father t)f tho ohild had roid of the above treatment, and on hie own responsibility—and that, too, without consultation with the attending physician — he obtained the mixture, taking two tableßpoonfuls of each, but he now considers one of each would have been sufficient and there would have been leas danger of burning the carpet, etc. The child waa m bed, breathing so loud that it could bo heard all over the house ; but as soon as the tar and turpentine began to burn she was relieved, and breathed qaito freely, and soon oommenoed to cough and raise ;. and, to the fatfcet-'a surprise and delight, she commenced (p eaiu from that moment. He followed up this treatment for three nights, the attending physician approving it, and the child to-day h W&H. The other two children, alluded to above did not have this form of treatment, and they axa numbered wlsh the dead. This remedy may not be an Infallible on* In all oases^and wjth all persons, but surety It could do no barm In esses that have 'been given up as Incurable by the medical men. Tho father said that he would advise the removal from the apartment where this treatment is to be applied of all articles that would be likely to be injured by the smoking of the Ingredients, before setting fire to the mtx.tqre..— " St JjOHte'GlobePtwwtV'