Chronic catarrhal laryngitis is a continuous passive inflammation of the laryngeal mucous membrane. Its etiology is multifarious. The most influential causes are nasal stenosis, liquor drinking, tobacco smoking, vitiated air, and an intemperate use of the vocal organs.
Nasal stenosis necessitates mouth breathing—an abnormal respiration, by which we have carried into the laryngeal cavity an air pregnant with dust, that soon begets an inflammatory process.
Chronic alcoholism produces an abnormal activity of the mucous glands of the mouth and fauces, which, during sleep, drops depraved excretions into the larynx, thereby producing a permanent inflammation.
Tobacco smoking causes to be deposited daily in the air passages the liquid alkaloid nicotina, which produces partial paralysis of the vasomotor nerves of this locality, and a resultant permanent injury to the mucous texture.
Vitiated air, in illy ventilated apartments, is one of the commonest causes of chronic laryngitis. Air reeking with noxious vapors poisons