Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1876 — Membranous Croup Cured. [ARTICLE]

Membranous Croup Cured.

That terror of parents, the muchdreaded membranous croup, has been met and conquered. A mother thus tells the story of how it was done in the Western Farm Journal of Chicago: I began with the intent to add a story of a sore struggle with croup, that resulted in a cure almost miraculous in its character, hoping that, from the reading of it, somebody may get hope and help in a similar case. In the mouth of November, 1872, my little boy, Archie, tnen about three years old, was taken suddenly with croup, not of the worst type at first, but accompanied by the hoarse cough and other symptoms of the milder form of the disease. Our well-tried and always, before this, successful remedy, was applied at once, that is, the cold bandage on the chest and throat, but, to our dismay, without any alleviation. The little fellow had considerable fever, and thpre was a steadilyincreasing closing up of the air-passages all that night and the next day. A physician was called who ordered emetics, etc., all of which had no effect. We flew from cold water to hot, used lard internally and externally, and even tried a patent nostrum, to our shame be it spoken. On the third day we gave him up, or rather could think of nothing else to do. The poor little fellow had lost almost all consciousness, and his breathing was that dry whistle, that showed the terrible work of suffocation that was killing our boy. An older and wiser doctor had been summoned, but as he looked at the little sufferer he shook his head and said, “membranous croup of the worst kind; he can’t iive an hour.” As we stood about the bed, an inspiration seemed to seize this physician. Said he: “Steam has been applied, I have heard, with good results;” and in an instant all were alert to find some means to apply this new remedy. The foot of an old-fashioned, high post bedstead was made one side of a room, perhaps six feet square. Quilts were rapidly collected and strung around the sides and over the top; a large store box, the first thing at hand, was moved into this room of quilts; the wash-boiler was put upon the stove some six feet from this impromptu steam bath, its lid pierced and fitted with a copper pipe, which'conveyed the steam where it was needed. All this came about like magic, though it is hard to tell exactly how; ,tmt i Q l ess than thirty minutes I was sitting on the box,.with Archie’s head on my shoulder, the air of our little den thick with steam, and our anxious friends waiting outside for the signal that the little one was saved. The first breath of the moist, hot atmosphere changed the sound of his breathing, but for fotfr hours the relief was uncertain. At the end of-that time the whistle had become a rattle, and the little fellow finally fell into a sound sleep. For seven days and nights Archie and I inhabited that steam den. The progress of his recovery was marked by fearful struggles with his enemy. At times he would sit up, tainting and laughing about the clouds that hung about his head, and then again he would wake from sleep half strangled, and for some seconds it seemed as if ne must suffocate or burst a blood vessel. But during the last few days of our imprisonment, hard, scaly matter came up by coughing, until the little fellow was safe, and the eighth day we ventured out. Some more of the facts connected with this strange experiment may be interesting. For twelve hours after we entered the bath it seemed impossible to keep up the needed amount of steam; our cotton walls drank it up until they were saturated. We were obliged to keep kettles of water inside the bath into which hot stones were now and then plunged; but this made us trouble, as the steam was so loaded with sulphurous fumes as to be stifling; but other than this, my own sensations were not unpleasant; breathing was easy, and I came out from the ordeal, to my utter astonishment, with scarcely any ill effects, not even excessive fatigue, and Archie did not lose flesh or spirits, though for months there was a hoarseness in his voice, as if it had been weakened by the extraordinary efforts to throw oft the disease. We were long apprehensive of a return of the attack, but it never came, and he finally was himself again. The records of croup cases will shov? that remedies which succeed in one case fail in all others, and I am slow to encourage the belief that our experience would be that of all who try that method, .but- there is. something in tma- direct application of hot moisture to the softening of the membrane in this generally fatal type of croup, that makes me confident of its power to ameliorate, at least, if not to cure the worst forms of this terrible malady ; and we shall never cease to thank the good angel who prompted the doctor to tell us of it, although the good doctor himself had little faith in its success in our case.

she Lumberman of April 8 contains an exhaustive review of the lumber product of the Northwest for the season of 1875, showing also the quantity of logs and lumber on hand at the beginning of the present year. The production and supply left over are shown to be as follows: No ft. lumber No. ft. lumber and toge on hand sawed is 187.'). Jan. 1,1K78. Michigan 2,74*1,feti.184 1,380,*77,1«9 Wisconsin 1,088,67 ,»» M ,S«l,U0O Minnesota S4-2.0aa,1Tl 217.0*8,000 Mississippi River.. -.91,487,1X0 2U,7ll,utX> Total The prxluct of the season of 1874 was 4,229,189,688 feet, and the supply of lumber and logs on hand JTan. 1, 1875, was 2,187,624,279 feet. The salaries of the Buffalo employee of the Erie Railway Company aggregate about SIOO,OOO a month, ornearly $1,250,000 per year. Nearly bue-thira of this amount is paid out so Ute attaches of the two work-shops. »- - Thhek hundred and tiiirty-sevkn American hotels were burned In 1875, and not a hotel cldrk was so much as scorched.