Fortunate indeed are the parents who have reared children, and are unacquainted with croup. Few diseases of childhood produce such distressing and alarming symptoms, and at the same time are so seldom fatal, as spasmodic croup.
I venture the assertion that nearly all have time and again had the following experience: shortly after midnight we are aroused from our pleasant slumbers by the violent ringing of the door-bell; and, on answering it, we find a half-dressed, badly frightened father. "Hurry, Doctor! My child has the croup, and I fear he will be dead before you can reach him—hurry!"
We in a few minutes reach the bedside, where all is consternation and confusion. The little four-yearold is on the mother's lap, breathing heavily, face congested and voice husky, with an occasional croupy cough that sends terror to the parents' hearts. The grandmother is busy mixing alum and honey, vinegar, salt and