Couvade

“ For a cough which results from a chill, it is a good plan for the patient to rub himself with it before taking the bath; it is similarly employed, too, in shivering fits, just before the attacks come on, and for convulsions and gripings of the stomach. It is also remarkably good for the gout.
To persons afflicted with spasms, this plant is administered in drink, in combination with honey and salt; and it renders expectoration easy in affections of the lungs.1576 Taken with salt it is beneficial for the spleen and bladder, and is curative of asthma and flatulency. ”

“ The most pronounced feature of this stage of the disease is, beyond all others, the catarrhal affection of the mucous membranes. The mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, mouth, and air-passages are all more or less involved, and the patient suffers in varying degrees from photophobia, coryza, hoarseness, cough, and pain in swallowing. Sneezing is frequent and annoying, and slight epistaxis is not uncommon. The cough usually appears on the first day, simultaneously with the fever. ”

“ From the second to the fourth day a free exudation takes place from the surface of the mucous membrane, and the symptoms are materially changed. The cough becomes more frequent but softer, looser, and attended with a rattle from the air passing through the abundant mucous secretion. The cooing or tubal sound heard at the lower end of the windpipe and behind the shoulder has now given place to a mucous râle. A nasal discharge appears at first watery, thin, of a whitish, glairy froth, but soon becoming more opaque, white, milky and flocculent and having little tendency to stick to the nostrils. ”

“ 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. ”

“ These symptoms may be so slight as hardly to attract the patient’s notice; at other times they are more severe and distressing. Frequently, on any little unusual exercise, the cough is increased, the patient feels a pain in [Pg 27] the side, and expectorates a frothy mucus, and blood is discharged from the lungs. This, perhaps, is the first symptom which excites the alarm of the patient. Expectoration of blood is generally preceded by a saltish taste in the mouth, and a sense of irritation at the upper part of the trachea. ”

“ His wife thanked him, and, reaching the sofa, watched with half-closed eyes as he cleared the breakfast-table. It was the first time he had done such a thing in his life, and a little honest pride in the possession of such a cough would not be denied. Dim possibilities of its vast usefulness suddenly occurred to her.
She took the cough mixture for a week, by which time other symptoms, extremely disquieting to an ease-loving man, had manifested themselves. Going upstairs deprived her of breath; carrying a loaded tea-tray produced a long and alarming stitch in the side. ”

“ The worst of an artificial cough in the hands—perhaps I should say, in the mouth—of a beginner is that it may come out with a hideous and unnatural loudness, when the cougher only intends it to be a mere whisper. My cough on this occasion surprised and horrified me. It seemed to ring through the church like the crack of a pistol. I felt that all the human eyes within a radius of twelve pews were staring the stare of pained surprise full at me, When I looked up I saw that Harry's back was shaking gently. ”

“ When is a mother to know that a cough is not a “tooth-cough,” but one of the symptoms of Inflammation of the Lungs?
If the child has had a shivering fit; if his skin be very hot and very dry; if his lips be parched; if there be great thirst; if his cheeks be flushed; if he be dull and heavy, wishing to be quiet in his cot or crib; if his appetite be diminished; if his tongue be furred; if his mouth be burning hot and dry; [223] if his urine be scanty and high-colored, staining the napkin or the linen; if his breathing be short, panting, hurried, and oppressed; if there be a hard, dry cough ”

“ The thirst is great, bowels bound and dung dark-colored; the spine is tender when pressed upon; the head projected forward and eyes staring; tears flow down the face; the teeth are ground; a discharge flows from the nose, at first clear and watery, afterwards red and containing some blood; the breathing becomes quicker, more difficult, and labored as the disease advances; the cough comes on in fits; the nostrils are widened, and play to their utmost limit; the body is covered with sweat ”

“ Where the pulmonary absorption is deficient, an habitual cough is produced, and a frequent expectoration of thin saline mucus; as is often seen in old enfeebled people. Though the stimulus of the saline fluid, which attends all secretions, is not sufficient to excite the languid absorbent vessels to imbibe it; yet this saline part, together with the increased quantity of the whole of the secreted mucus, stimulates the branches of the bronchia, so as to induce an almost incessant cough to discharge it from the lungs. ”

“ Every adult person clears his throat in the morning. One who has been sitting for a long time must cough when he goes out-of-doors. Bodily movement is the best "solvent" for a cough. When one's life is sedentary, mucus collects first of all in the apices of the lungs, and it is more difficultly broken up there by bodily movement, because the apices are the uppermost parts of the lung, and the impetus of the cough must drive the expectorated mucus around the corners of the lung. The apices are a veritable receptacle for mucus, which, if not removed, dries up, grows hard, and causes ulceration. ”

“ The pulse increases to one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty beats in the minute, and is feeble and thread-like. The cough harasses the patient so that he does not sleep, or his rest is fitful and unrefreshing; whenever sleep does occur, the patient wakes to find himself drenched with a cold, clammy perspiration. The throat, mouth, and tongue now become tender, and occasionally ulcerate. Expectoration is profuse, purulent, and viscid, clinging tenaciously to the throat and mouth, and the patient no longer has strength to eject it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This is a form of disease that has doubtless occurred to every practitioner. But in some instances, along with many of the above symptoms, there is cough, with chronic diarrhoea, followed by a febrile and marcescent state; and some structural derangement of the lungs is superadded to the abdominal mischief. From the appearances on dissection, of some such cases, one might suppose that the germs of tubercles are sometimes born with us, for in one such dissection of a child, I find it recorded, that both lungs were completely studded with tubercles. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The chronic or paroxysmal cough may often be traced to the presence of tumor, ulcer, local inflammation, or parasite, but in some instances no local trouble is recognizable, the general health remains good, and yet the throat is abnormally sensitive and a cough or fit of coughing may be roused by passing into the cold air from a warm stable, by cold water in drinking, by inhaling irritant gas, by the passage of rough or fibrous food, or by handling the larnyx. ”

“ The symptoms are emaciation of the whole body, constant shortness and quickness of breath, occasional stitches in the sides, quick pulse, usually upward of one hundred in the minute, hacking cough day and night, attended by a copious expectoration, for the most part perfectly black, and very much the same as thick blacking in colour and consistence, but occasionally yellowish and mucous, or white and frothy; respiration is cavernous in some parts, and dull in others; a wheezing noise is heard in the bronchial passages, from the presence of an inordinate quantity of fluid ”

“ He must frequently take such deep inspirations in the open air.
If the lungs do not become free, let him introduce into them—not into the stomach—something to act on the dry mucous membrane—as the vapor of water or of camomile-tea.
If the cough is caused rather by a "scratchy" feeling in the throat, if it is spasmodic, let him swallow or gargle some substance that will quiet the nerves. Cold water is best—in summer ice-water ”

“ The special points about this cough are (1) its loudness; (2) its combination of the noises made by all other coughs; (3) its depth; (4) its shriek of despair as it trembles and reverberates through the house; (5) its capacity to repel and annihilate sympathy. It is true that I have interviewed Binns with regard to his cough—it is an annual interview and is expected of me. ”

“ After effusion begins these signs of restlessness disappear. Every movement of the chest causes pain; therefore the cough is peculiar; it is short and suppressed and comes as near being no cough as the animal can make it in his desire to suppress it. The breathing is hurried, the mouth is hot, the temperature being elevated from 102° or 103° to 105° F. Symptoms that usually accompany fever are present, such as costiveness, scanty, dark-colored urine, etc. The pulse is frequent, perhaps 70 or more a minute, and is hard and wiry. The legs and ears are cold. ”

“ We must ease the cough, and go at the fever energetically. The quinine will see to that. And by the by, my dear Senator, let me warn you against feeling alarm over single symptoms, you know. If the difficulty in breathing increases, or there should be a little delirium in the night, or a good deal of discharge to-morrow—a sort of rusty-looking mucous, with a little blood in it—well, all that is to be expected, entirely regular and normal. Do reassure dear Madame Permaneder on this point too—she is nursing the patient with such devotion.—How is she feeling? ”

“ 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. ”

“ In these months child-bearing women are troubled with coughs, heart-beating, fainting, watching, pains in the loins and hips, and bleeding. The cough is from a sharp vapour that comes to the jaws and rough artery from the terms, or the thin part of that blood gotten into the veins of the breast, or falling from the head to the breast; this endangers abortion, and strength fails from watching; therefore purge the humours that come to the breast with rhubarb and agaric, and strengthen the head as in a catarrh, and give sweet lenitives, as in a cough. ”

“ Symptoms.—These differ, in the great majority of cases, from croupal pneumonia, in not being preceded by rigors. There is always fever and a rise of bodily temperature from 103° to 105°. There is often copious perspiration and increased pulse. As the disease progresses the breathing becomes more difficult and rapid, the cough changes its character, and “becomes short, harsh, hacking, and painful, the child endeavouring to repress it, and having an expression of pain or crying and diminished expectoration.” ”

“ In other words, a tubercular cough, which has its cause in a lesion on the extreme right or left of the lung would not respond to pressures in the middle zones. Likewise a cough which was reflected from a congested liver, or from some other organ not in the first and second zones, would fail to respond to pressures made as here described. Any intelligent man or woman can apply these pressures—and with almost the same success as would attend the effort of the most famous specialist. ”