Diphtheria and Croup Cure.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 30 January 1892, Page 3

Diphtheria and Croup Cure.

In a report to the French Academy of Medicine, Dr Delthell stated that the vapours of liquid tar and turpentine would dissolve the fibrinous cxv halations which choke up the throat i* in croup and diphtheria. He de scribed the process thus : — " Take equal parts (say two tablespoonfuls) of turpentine and liquid tar, put them into a tin pan or cup, and set fire to the mixture, takinp care to have 'a large pan under it a? a safeguard' against fire. A dense resinous smoke arises making tht room dark. The patient immedi ately seems to experience relief; the choking and the rattle stop; the patient falls into «a slumber, and seems to inhale the smoke with pleasure. The fibrous membrane soon becomes detached, and the patient coughs up microbides. These, when "paught in a glass, may be seen to dissolve in the smoke. In the course of three or four days, the patient entirely recovers." The above information has been quite largely copied into the papers, and with it the relief and cure of Ruth Lockwood, a nine-year-old cbild, who was dangerously sick with diphtheria, but the disease readily yielded to the above mode of treatment, and the cbild was cured. A case occurring in Boston recently is worthy of note at this particular time, when the two forms ot disease are quite prevalent. The facts of the case, in brief, are as follows : — Jennie Brown, a child of some five years of age, was dangerously sick with diphtheria ; her attending physioian had rio Hopes of her recovery ; lie declared to a person that out of the many cases under his treatment three were beyond cure, and little Jennie was • one of that number. The father of the child had read tha above treatment, and, on his own responsibility - and that, too, without consultation with the attending physician he obtained the mixture, taking two stablespoonfuls of each, but he now considers that one of each would have been'sufficient, and there would have been less danger of ''burning the carpet, etc. The child was in bed, breathing so loud that it could be heard all over the house ; but as soon as the tar and turpentine began to burn she was relieved, and breathing quite freely, and soon commenced to cough and retch ; and ,to her father's surprise and delight she commenced to gain fwm that moment. He followed up this treatment for three nights, ihe , attending physician approving it, apd the child to-day is well. The «pther two children alluded to abo\e %ctid not have this form of treatment, „ and thdy are numbered with the dead, 'This remedy may not be an infallible cure in all cases with all persons, but surely it could do no harm in cases that have been given up as incurable by medical men. The 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 smoke of the ingredients before setting fire to the mix- 1 ture.— St. Louis Globe Democrat.