Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/188

 for assistance, or if proper medicines be not instantly given, in a few hours it will probably be of no avail, and in a day or two the little sufferer will be a corpse!

When once a child has had croup the after-attacks are generally milder. If he has once had an attack of croup, I should advise you always to have in the house medicine—a 4 oz. bottle of ipecacuanha wine, to fly to at a moment's notice; but never omit, where practicable, in a case of croup, whether the attack be severe or mild, to send immediately for medical aid. In case of a sudden attack of croup, instantly give a teaspoonful of ipecacuanha wine, and repeat it every five minutes until free vomiting be excited. There is no disease in which time is more precious than in croup, and where the delay of an hour may decide either for life or for death.

199. But suppose a medical man is not ''to be procured, what then am I to do? more especially, as you say, that delay might be death''.

What to do.—I never in my life lost a child with croup where I was called in at the commencement of the disease, and where my plans were carried out to the very letter. Let me begin by saying, Look well to the goodness and purity of the medicine, for the life of your child may depend upon the medicine being genuine. What medicine? Ipecacuanha wine! At the earliest dawn of the disease give a teaspoonful of ipecacuanha wine every five minutes, until free vomiting be excited. In croup, before he is safe, free vomiting must be established, and that without loss of time. If, after the expiration of an hour, the ipecacuanha wine (having given during that hour a teaspoonful of it every five minutes) is not sufficiently powerful for the purpose—although it generally is so (if the ipecacuanha wine be good)—then let the following mixture be substituted: