Cough

“ This Cough is known by the peculiar hoop which is descriptive of the disease. Children are most commonly the subjects of this complaint, and especially those who are teething; but it sometimes attacks those advanced in life. It comes on with a slight difficulty of breathing, thirst, rapid pulse, hoarseness, Cough, and all the symptoms of common Cold. This disorder, if not nipped in the bud, gradually increases; and about the second or third week, assumes its peculiar characteristic symptoms. The expiratory motions, peculiar to coughing, are made with more rapidity and violence than usual ”

“ Besides, the cough is nature's method of removing material from the lungs which has become disintegrated, and if allowed to remain will certainly bring about the spread of the infection in the pulmonary tissues. Cough is a natural protective reaction to be encouraged, and is not in itself a source of evil needing to be suppressed. If cough is bothering the patient so much at night as to cause loss of sleep, then it is necessary to make a choice between two evils and somewhat to suppress the cough, even though it involves certain other inconvenience to the patient. ”

“ Whooping cough is unlike the other three diseases in that it is a nervous trouble, and probably the germ or the poison formed by the germ attacks the nervous system, and particularly one great nerve connecting the lungs and stomach. This is why the spasm of coughing is frequently followed by vomiting, and the only remedy which is of [Pg 374] value in whooping cough is a nerve depressant which will diminish the activity of the nervous system without at the same time interfering with the strength or vigor of the patient. ”

“ See Pyroxylin.
COUGH. Syn. Tus′sis, L. The sudden and violent expulsion of air from the lungs. It is generally symptomatic of other affections, but is sometimes idiopathic, or a primary disease. Many cases of cough depend upon the extension of catarrh to the trachea and bronchiæ, which thus become loaded with mucus or phlegm, which they endeavour to throw off by the convulsive effort called coughing. In some cases it is caused by a vitiation and inspissation of the secretions, arising from the imperfect action of the absorbents; this is the common cause of the dry cough of old people. ”

“ A painful cough occurs in pleurisy, also in laryngitis, bronchitis, and bronchial pneumonia. Pain is shown by the effort the animal exerts to repress the cough. The cough is not painful, as a rule, in the chronic diseases of the respiratory tract. The force of the cough is considerable when it is not especially painful and when the lungs are not seriously involved. When the lungs are so diseased that they can not be filled with a large volume of air, and in heaves, the cough is weak, as it is also in weak, debilitated animals. ”

“ The most remarkable feature of a brand-new discovery is very frequently its hoary-headedness. For this reason, when we come to think about this matter of the mechanical relief of cough, we are struck with its antiquity. From time antedating the memory of man, humanity has pressed its second finger in its pharynx (that space which spreads out from the back part of the mouth and throat up into the nose) or the larynx (a continuation of the pharynx) , for the purpose of loosening a dry cough or to facilitate expectoration. ”

“ When the complaint is protracted, and the defluxion is carried down to the chest and lungs, it [470] gives rise to bad coughs. And a cough often arises from an intemperament; sometimes a hot one, as in fevers, and sometimes a cold, as in northerly states of the weather, which is rather a dry one. Cough is also sometimes symptomatic of some other disease, such as pleurisy, hepatitis, phthisis, or peripneumonia. Wherefore Galen relates that, in certain chronic cases of cough, chalazia (hail-stones) have been brought up from the chest. ”

“ When cough, hoarseness, catarrh, and loss of voice are noticed in a young child, it should be narrowly watched and protected against all circumstances likely to aggravate inflammation; it should be kept in the house, and a warm, moist air should be kept in the room (about 65°) , its diet should be milk or farinaceous food; the functions of the bowels and skin should be attended to; some aconite should be given; if there is a slight, ringing cough, place the patient in a warm bath for ten minutes, then confine it to bed; keep the air of the room moist by the evaporation of boiling water ”

“ There is a form of cough which is oftenest observed in children between the ages of two and five years, which comes in fits closely resembling those of hooping-cough, and each fit ends in a sort of imperfect 'hoop.' This may depend on a particular form of consumption in which the glands connected with the lungs (the bronchial glands as they are called) are diseased, and not the lung-substance itself. The enlarged glands press on some of the nerves connected with the upper part of the windpipe, and thus occasion the spasmodic cough. ”

“ Cough is largely influenced by suggestion. Most of the respiratory reflexes follow this same rule. To see another yawn tempts us to yawn; to hear another cough tempts us to cough. In church or in a theater after an interval of interest one cough will be followed by a battery of coughs. People who have colds think they have a right to cough, and so they often cough much more than is at all necessary. Of course, when material accumulates in the lungs it must be coughed up, but not a little of the coughing might easily be dispensed with—it is unproductive coughing. ”

“ Toward the end of the second week to these symptoms are added irritation of the membrane lining the air-tubes; a frequent and dry cough, commencing with a sense of tickling in the upper part of the windpipe, but little relieved by the cough or only after long coughing; and the expectoration of a small quantity of transparent, glairy mucus. The severity of these bronchial symptoms depends much upon the condition of the atmosphere: if dry and dusty, the cough is much worse; dampness and a rainstorm give relief. ”

“ As a general rule, patients run down and the disease progresses much more rapidly, after beginning the use of opium in any form. Sometimes it is best that the cough should be encouraged instead of being repressed. When the patient expectorates very freely, The cough is a necessary means of relieving the chest of matters which would seriously interfere with the functions of the lungs if retained, by filling up the bronchial tubes and air-cells. The kind of cough needing relief is an irritable, ineffective cough, unaccompanied by any considerable degree of expectoration. ”

“ A tickling cough sometimes comes on, and seems to remain in spite of all efforts to get rid of it. It is worse at night, and keeps the sufferer from sleeping, causing much distress. Where the breathing organs are weak, this cough is caused by an extra flow of blood to them, especially on lying down, the blood acting as an irritant by pressing where it should not. In such cases a bran poultice (see) applied as directed for Bronchitis, with cooling applications to the part where the tickling is felt, should soon effect a cure. ”

“ The coughing fits increase and the child gets red in the face, has difficulty in getting its breath during them, and sometimes vomits when the attack is over. After a variable period, from a few days to two weeks from the beginning of the cough, the peculiar feature of the disease appears. The child gives fifteen or twenty short coughs without drawing breath, the face swells and grows blue, the eyeballs protrude, the veins stand out, and the patient appears to be suffocating, when at last he draws in a long breath with a crowing or whooping sound, which gives rise to the name of the disease. ”

“ On standing with the feet in thawing snow, many people are liable to incessant coughing. From the torpidity of the absorbent vessels of the lungs, in consequence of their irritative associations with those of the skin, they cease to absorb the saline part of the secreted mucus; and a cough is thus induced by the irritation of this saline secretion; which is similar to that from the nostrils in frosty weather, but differs in respect to its immediate cause; the former being from association with a distant part, and the latter from defect of the stimulus of heat on the nostrils themselves. ”

“ This cough will begin as an ordinary cough and it will only be discovered that it is not an ordinary cough because nothing will apparently cure it. We mean that the child is given cough remedies that usually cure a cold, is kept in the house and carefully watched for a sufficiently long period to justify a cure, and yet, despite this care and attention, the cough remains the same. The child is not sick, the appetite is good, there is no fever, it plays and seems to enjoy good health, yet for weeks and frequently for months the annoying cough hangs on. It is as a rule worse at night. ”

“ We believe the day has come, and long before noon, the fear of consumption will greatly [Pg 71] pass from the minds of people. We have long since known and proven that a cough is only an effect. If an effect then a wise man will set his mental dogs on the track, which is (effect) to hunt the skunk, (cause) . He has all the evidence by the cough, location of pain, tenderness of spine, neck, and quality of the substances coughed up to locate the cause, and to know, when he has found it, how to remove the cause, and give relief; will grow more simple as he reasons and notes effect. ”

“ The head becomes affected in consequence of the often recurring congestion of the brain, produced, as in spasmodic croup, by the constantly returning interruption to the breathing. In these cases the cough is frequent, and so violent that the child becomes livid during each paroxysm, and that instead of ending in a loud hoop it finishes by a fit of convulsions or by the child sinking into a state of semi-insensibility. Increased violence of the cough, with suppression of the hoop, is always a bad omen in hooping-cough. ”

“ The purpose of the cough is to remove some irritant substance from the respiratory passages, and it occurs when irritant gases, such as smoke, ammonia, sulphur vapor, or dust, have been inhaled. It occurs from inhalation of cold air if the respiratory passages are sensitive from disease. In laryngitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia, cough is very easily excited and occurs merely from accumulation of mucus and inflammatory product upon the irritated respiratory mucous membrane. ”

“ A cough is an effort of nature to bring up any secretion from the lining membrane of the lungs, or from the bronchial tubes, hence it ought not to be interfered with. I have known the administration of syrup of white poppies, or of paregoric, to stop the cough, and thereby to prevent the expulsion of the phlegm, and thus to produce either inflammation of the lungs, or bronchitis. ”

“ Where the cough continues after some weeks without much of the hooping, and a sensitive fever daily supervenes, so as to resemble hectic fever from ulcers of the lungs; change of air for a week or fortnight acts as a charm, and restores the patient beyond the hopes of the physician.
Young children should lie with their heads and shoulders raised; and should be constantly watched day and night; that when the cough occurs, they may be held up easily, so as to stand upon their feet bending a little forwards ”

“ The symptoms of this disease vary greatly with its violence and progress. Cough is always present, and is very often the first symptom to attract the patient's attention. It is usually increased by every slight cold, and with each fresh accession becomes more and more severe, and is arrested with greater difficulty. The cough is always persistent, sometimes short and hacking, at other times deep, prolonged, and harsh. ”

“ This is true if we think of the curing of an ordinary catarrhal or bronchitic cough by suggestion. We know now, however, that, as a rule, we do not cure diseases, we only relieve their symptoms and thus enable nature to overcome the affection. The ordinary cough remedies do two things: they cause more liquid to exude into the lung tissues and thus soften and liquefy thick mucous material so as to make it easier to expectorate, or they lessen irritation and soothe the cough by making the nervous system less reactive. ”

“ A Good Cough Remedy.—The following is from a doctor connected with an institution with many children: "There is nothing more irritable to a cough than a cough. For some time I had been so fully assured of this that I determined, for one minute at least, to lessen the number of coughs heard in a certain ward in a hospital of the institution. By the promise of rewards and punishments, I succeeded in inducing them to simply hold their breath when tempted to cough, and in a little while I was myself surprised to see how some of the children entirely recovered from their disease. ”

“ A few hours before death the muscular power is no longer capable of maintaining him in that posture, and he sinks backward. The dyspnœa is attended with cough, sometimes through the whole of the disease, sometimes only at intervals. The cough varies in frequency. It is always strong, and commonly attended with copious expectoration of thick mucus, which, as the disease advances, becomes brown coloured, and often tinged with blood; a short time before death it frequently consists entirely of black blood. ”