Cure for the Croup

[ Cure for the Croup ] Dr. William James Almon

Contributors
Contributor Role
Compiler
Contributor Name
Dr. William James Almon

Date: Published after 1807. | 1807/01/01 to 1810/01/01

Publication Format
Print

Type
Medicine

Symptoms
vomiting
croup
whooping cough

Ingredients
liver of sulfur alkalized
sulfur of potash
honey
sugar
milk
syrup
water

Places
London
England
Great Britain
France
Halifax
Nova Scotia

Source: Manuscript Notebook of Dr. William James Almon
Institution: Nova Scotia Archives | Source Origin: Almon Family Fonds | Reference: MG 1 / Microfilm Reel 10,045

Description

Transcription of a remedy for croup awarded a prize by the French government in 1807, p. 242.


Images
Transcription

             Gleanings from London Papers.
                                 ___
                 CURE FOR THE CROUP.
                                 ___
      A prize of 12,000 francs, was offered in 1807, 
by the French government, to that physician
who should produce the best memoir on the
disease called the croup, including also the best 
method for cure.--Eighty-three memoirs were
received; among them two have shared the
prize, being of equal merit, three are distin-
guished as extremely honourable to their au-
thors, and a sixth memoir is marked by the pro-
posal of a remedy that is said by the writer to be
a specific in this malady, and in the whooping-
cough. It is liver of sulphur alcalized, a sul-
phur of potash, recently prepared and brownish.
It is usually given mixed with honey [we have 
known it given with sugar.] The dose, from
the attack of the croup, to the decided diminuti-
on of the disorder, is ten grains morning and
evening, to be diminished as the disorder abates;
and toward the close, the morning dose only to
be given. The mixture of sulphur and honey to
be made at the moment of using. Young chil-
dren will suck it off the end of a finger: but it
may be given in a spoonful of milk, or of syrup, 
thinned with water; or as a bolus: grown chil-
dren take it best in this form. It usually relieves
in two days; but it must be continued until the
cure is completed, and sometimes beyond that
period, for fear or relapses. The lips and the
interior of the mouth are whitened by the liver
of sulphur; and it imparts a warmth to the 
stomach, as it arrives there. The first doses 
most commonly occasion a vomit of a visoid or
concrete matter, to which the sulphur gives a 
greenish tint. Infants at the breast continue 
their customary nourishment. -- The commission
engaged to decree the prize, gave no opinion on
this recipe; but desire it may be tried by the fa-
culty, not only in cases of the croup, but in pul-
monary catarrhs, and other affections of that
[class], for the purpose of obtaining further infor-
mation on its effects.