Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/129

 suddenly, often without any perceptible cause, and affecting the muscles of the glottis.

One of the last examples of this spasmodic affection, which has fallen under my observation, occurred in an infant, whose health, in other respects, did not materially suffer. The attacks of crowing inspiration returned at intervals, sometimes during the night; occasionally they were accompanied by a rigidity of the thumbs and toes, often with convulsions. At all other times the child was playful and lively. From the kind and able care of Mr. Smith, surgeon, of this town, she received considerable relief. The gums were promptly lanced, and the bowels maintained in an open state with the aid of calomel, and the occasional use of glysters medicated with assafœtid. or spir. terebinth. On the supposition that, from the violence of these attacks, some cerebral affection might supervene, leeches were applied to the neck. From a steady perseverance in these remedies, no advantage was reaped beyond a temporary respite from these spasmodic shocks. They again returned, and the gums were again divided, and counter-irritation applied to the nape of the neck. At the time I was first consulted in the case, the child was slightly relieved by a tonic plan of treatment, and by the sulphas quininæ repeated in small doses. But, on reading those cases of Dr. Marshall Hall, where such striking benefits resulted from a change of air, under similar circumstances, I had no hesitation in recommending a trial of the same plan in this case, and though neither the weather, nor the season of the year, was very auspicious, yet, after a removal to Matlock, the child experienced