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Cough is caused by a sudden, violent expulsion of air from the chest following the drawing in of a deep breath. A loose cough is to be encouraged, as by its means mucus and other discharge is expelled from the air passages.

A dry cough is seen in the early stages of various respiratory diseases, as bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy, consumption, whooping cough, and with irritation from enlarged tonsils and adenoids occurring in children.

Irritation produced by inhaling dust, or any irritation existing in the nose, ear, or throat may lead to this variety of cough. The dry cough accomplishes no good, and if continuous and excessive may do harm, and demands medicinal relief.

Bronchitis. Cough following or accompanying cold in the head and sore throat generally means bronchitis.

The larynx or lower part of the throat ends just below the “Adam’s apple” in the windpipe. The windpipe is about four and a half inches long and three quarters to an inch in diameter, and terminates by dividing into the two bronchial tubes in the upper part of the chest. Each bronchial tube divides and subdivides in turn like the branches of a tree, the branches growing more numerous and smaller and smaller until they finally end in the microscopic air sacs or air cells of the lungs. The bronchial tubes convey air to the air cells, and in the latter the oxygen is absorbed into the blood, and carbonic acid is given up. Bronchitis is an inflammation of the mucous membrane lining these tubes. In cough of an ordinary cold only the mucous membrane of the windpipe and, perhaps, of the larger tubes is inflamed. This is a very mild disorder compared to inflammation of the smaller and more numerous tubes.

In bronchitis, besides the ordinary symptoms of a severe cold in the head, as sneezing, running of mucus from the nose, sore throat and some hoarseness perhaps, and languor and soreness in the muscles, there is at first a feeling of tightness, pressure, and rawness in the region of the breastbone, with a harsh, dry cough. The coughing causes a strain of the diaphragm (the muscle which forms the floor of the chest), so that there are often pain and soreness along the lower borders of the chest where the diaphragm is attached to the inside of the ribs. After a few days the cough becomes looser, greatly to the patient’s comfort, and a mixture of mucus and pus is expectorated. In a healthy adult such a cough is usually not in itself a serious affair, and apart from the discomfort of the first day or two, there is not sufficient disturbance of the general health to interfere with the ordinary pursuits. The temperature is the best guide in such cases; if it is above normal (98 3/5° F.) the patient should stay indoors. In infants, young children, enfeebled or elderly people, bronchitis may be a serious matter, and may be followed by pneumonia by extension of the inflammation from the small bronchial tubes into the air sacs of the lungs, and infection with the pneumonia germ. The principal signs of severe attacks of bronchitis are rapid breathing, fever, and rapid pulse.

The normal rate of breathing in adults is seventeen a minute, that is, seventeen inbreaths and seventeen outbreaths. In children of one to five years the normal rate is about twenty six breathing movements a minute. In serious cases of bronchitis the rate may be twenty five to forty in adults, or forty to sixty in children, per minute.

Of course the only exact way of learning the nature of a chest trouble is thorough, careful examination by a physician, for cough, fever, rapid breathing and rapid pulse occur in many other diseases besides bronchitis, particularly pneumonia.

Pneumonia begins suddenly, often with a severe chill, headache, and general pains like grippe . In a few hours cough begins, short and dry, with violent, stabbing pain in one side of the chest, generally near the nipple. The breathing is rapid, with expanding nostrils, the face is anxious and often flushed. The matter coughed up at first is often streaked with blood, and is thick and like jelly. The temperature is often 104° 105° F.

If the disease proceeds favorably, at the end of five, seven, or ten days the temperature, breathing, and pulse become normal suddenly, and the patient rapidly emerges from a state of danger and distress to one of comfort and safety. The sudden onset of pneumonia with chill, agonizing pain in side, rapid breathing, and often delirium with later bloody or rusty colored, gelatinous expectoration, will then usually serve to distinguish it from bronchitis, but not always.

Whenever, with cough, rapid and difficult breathing occur with rise of temperature (as shown by the thermometer) and rapid pulse, the case is serious, and medical advice is urgently demanded.

Treatment of Acute Cough and Bronchitis. In the case of healthy adults with a cough accompanying an ordinary cold, the treatment is very simple, when there is little fever or disturbance of the general health. The remedies recommended for cold in the head (p. 55) should be taken at first. It is also particularly desirable for the patient to stay in the house, or better in bed, for the first day or two, or until the temperature is normal.

The feeling of tightness and distress in the chest may be relieved by applying a mild mustard paper over the breastbone, or a poultice containing mustard, one part, and flour, three parts, mixed with warm water into a paste and spread between two single thicknesses of cotton cloth about eight inches square. The tincture of iodine painted twice over a similar area forms another convenient application instead of the mustard. If the cough is excessive and troublesome at night the tablets of “ammonium chloride compound with codeine” are convenient. One may be taken every hour or two by an adult, till relieved.

Children suffering from a recent cough and fever should be kept in bed while the temperature is above normal. It is well to give infants at the start a grain of calomel or half a teaspoonful of castor oil, and to children of five to eight years double the dose.

The chest should be rubbed with a liniment composed of one part of turpentine and two parts of camphorated oil. It is well also to apply a jacket made of sheet cotton over the whole chest. It is essential to keep the room at a temperature of about 70° F. and well ventilated, not permitting babies to crawl on the floor when able to be up, or to pass from a warm to a cold room. Sweet spirit of niter is a serviceable remedy to use at the beginning: five to fifteen drops every two hours in water for a child from one to ten years of age, for the first day or two.

If the cough is harsh, hard, or croupy, give syrup of ipecac every two hours: ten drops to an infant of one year or under, thirty drops to a child of ten years, unless it causes nausea or vomiting, when the dose may be reduced one half. If children become “stuffed up” with secretion so that the breathing is difficult and noisy, give a teaspoonful of the syrup of ipecac to make them vomit, for until they are six or seven years old children cannot expectorate, and mucus which is coughed up into the mouth is swallowed by them. Vomiting not only gets rid of that secretion which has been swallowed, but expels it from the bronchial tubes. This treatment may be repeated if the condition recurs.

In infants under a year of age medicine is to be avoided as much as possible. A teaspoonful of sweet oil and molasses, equal parts, may be given occasionally to loosen the cough in mild cases. A paste consisting of mustard, one part, and flour, twenty parts, is very useful when spread on a cloth and applied all about the chest, front and back. The diet should be only milk for young children during the first day or two, and older patients should not have much more than this, except toast and soups. In feeble babies with bronchitis it is wise to give five or ten drops of brandy or whisky in water every two hours, to relieve difficulty in breathing.

Children who are subject to frequent colds, or those in whom cough is persistent, should receive Peter Möller’s cod liver oil, one half to one teaspoonful, according to age, three times daily after eating. One of the emulsions may be used instead if the pure oil is unpalatable. Adenoids and enlarged tonsils are a fruitful source of constant colds and sore throat, and their removal is advisable. Hardening of the skin by daily sponge baths with cold salt water, while the child stands or sits in warm water, is effective as a preventive of colds, as is also an out of door life with proper attention to clothing and foot gear.

Treatment of Pneumonia. Patients developing the symptoms described as suggestive of pneumonia need the immediate attention of a physician. If a person is unfortunate enough to have the care of such a case, when it is impossible to secure a physician, it may afford some comfort to know that good nursing is really the prime requisite in aiding recovery, while skillful treatment is of most value if complications arise.

One in every ten cases of pneumonia in ordinarily healthy people proves fatal. In specially selected young men, as soldiers, the death rate from pneumonia is only one in twenty five cases. On the other hand, pneumonia is the common cause of death in old age; about seventy out of every hundred patients who die from pneumonia are between sixty and eighty years of age. Infants under a year old, and persons enfeebled with disease or suffering from excesses, particularly alcoholism, are also likely to die if stricken with the disease.

The patient should go to bed in a large, well ventilated, and sunny room. The temperature of the room should be about 70° F., and the patient must not be covered so warmly with clothing as to cause perspiration. A flannel jacket may be made to surround the chest, and should open down the whole front. The nightshirt is worn over this; nothing more. Daily sponging of the patient with tepid water (85° to 90° F.) should be practiced. The body is not to be all exposed at once, but each limb and the trunk are to be separately sponged and dried. If the fever is high (104° F.) the water should be cold (77° to 72° F.), and the sponging done every three hours in the case of a strong patient. Visitors must be absolutely forbidden. No more than one or two persons are to be allowed in the sick room at once.

The diet should consist chiefly of milk, a glass every two hours, varied with milk mixed with thin cooked cereal or eggnog. It is wise to give at the beginning of the disease a cathartic, such as five grains of calomel followed in twelve hours by a Seidlitz powder, if the bowels do not act freely before that time. To relieve the pain in the side, if excruciating, give one quarter grain morphine sulphate, and repeat once, if necessary, in two hours. The application of an ice bag to the painful side frequently stops the pain, and, moreover, is excellent treatment throughout the course of the disease. The seat of pain usually indicates that the lung on that side is the inflamed one, so that the ice bag should be allowed to rest against that portion of the chest. Water should be freely supplied, and should be given as well as milk even if the patient is delirious.

The bowels are to be moved daily by glycerin suppositories or injection of warm water. Dover’s powder in doses of five grains is useful to assuage cough. It may be repeated once, after two hours’ interval if desirable, but must not be employed at the same time as morphine. After the first two or three days are passed, or sooner in weak subjects, give strychnine sulphate, one thirtieth grain, every six hours in pill or tablet form. The strychnine is to be continued until the temperature becomes normal, and then reduced about one half in amount for a week or ten days while the patient remains in bed, as he must for some time after the temperature, pulse, and breathing have become normal.

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It is not very uncommon for patients with mild forms of diphtheria to walk about and attend to their usual duties and, if children, to go to school, and in that inviting field to spread the disease. These cases may present a white spot on one tonsil, or in other cases have what looks to be an ordinary sore throat with a simple redness of the mucous membrane. Sore throats in persons who have been in any way exposed to diphtheria, and especially sore throats in children under such circumstances, should always be subjected to microscopical examination in the way we have alluded to before, for the safety of both the patient and the public.

There is still another point perhaps not generally known and that is the fact that the germs of diphtheria may remain in the throat of a patient for weeks, and even months, after all signs in the throat have disappeared and the patient seems well. In such cases, however, the disease can still be communicated in its most severe form to others. Therefore, in all cases of diphtheria, examination of the secretion in the throat must show the absence of diphtheria germs before the patient can rightfully mix with other people.

Gargling and swabbing the throat with the (poisonous) solution of bichloride of mercury, 1 part to 10,000 parts of water (none of which must be swallowed), should be employed every three or four hours each day till the germs are no longer found in the mucus of the tonsils.

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One eye is commonly attacked twenty four to thirty six hours before the other, and even if it is thought that the cause is a cinder, in case of one eye, it can hardly be possible to sustain this belief in the case of the involvement of both eyes. There is a feeling of discomfort about the eyes, and often a burning, and constant watering, the tears containing flakes of white discharge.

When the discharge is a copious, creamy pus or “matter,” associated with great swelling of the lids and pain on exposure to light, the cause is usually a germ of a special disease, and the eyesight will very probably be lost unless a skillful physician be immediately secured. Early treatment is, however, of great service, and, until a physician can be obtained, the treatment recommended below should be followed conscientiously; by this means the sight may be saved. This dangerous variety of inflammation of the eyes is not rare in the newborn, and infants having red eyes within a few days of birth should immediately receive proper attention, or blindness for life will be the issue. This is the usual source of that form of blindness with which babies are commonly said to have been born.

All forms of severe inflammation of the lids are contagious, especially the variety last considered, and can be conveyed, by means of the discharge, through the agency of towels, handkerchiefs, soap, wash basins, etc., and produce the same or sometimes different types of inflammation in healthy eyes. Therefore, if the severe form of conjunctivitis breaks out among any large number of people, as in schools, prisons, asylums, and almshouses, isolation of the patients should be enforced.

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To remove solid bodies, turn the ear containing the body, downward, pull it outward and backward, and rub the skin just in front of the opening into the ear with the other hand, and the object may fall out.

Failing in this, syringing with warm water, as for removal of wax, while the patient is sitting, may prove successful. The essentials of treatment then consist, first, in keeping cool; then in killing insects by dropping oil or water into the ear, and, if syringing proves ineffective, in using no instrumental methods in an attempt to remove the foreign body, but in awaiting such time as skilled medical services can be obtained. If beans or seeds are not washed out by syringing, the water may cause them to swell and produce pain. To obviate this, drop glycerin in the ear which absorbs water, and will thus shrivel the seed.

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“Blackheads” appear as slightly elevated black points, sometimes having a yellowish tint from which a little, thin, wormlike mass may be pressed. Pimples and blackheads are both due to inflammation about the glands of the skin which secrete oily material; the mouths of the glands become plugged with dust, thus retaining the oily secretion and causing blackheads. Then if these glands are invaded by germs producing pus, we have a pimple, which usually results in the formation of matter as described above. Constipation and indigestion favor the occurrence of pimples and blackheads; also a poor state of the blood, or anæmia.

Treatment. Tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol should be avoided, together with veal, pork, fats, and cheese. The bowels must be moved daily by some proper cathartic, as cascara tablets containing two grains each of the extract. The dose is one to two tablets at night. The blackheads should be squeezed out with a watch key, or with an instrument made for the purpose, not finger nails, and pimples containing matter must be emptied after being pricked with a needle (which has been passed through a flame to kill germs on it). If there is redness of the skin and irritation associated with pimples, it is sufficient to bathe the skin with very hot water and green soap three times daily, and apply calamine lotion at night. In other cases, when the skin is not sensitive, and zinc or mercury has not been used, the employment of sulphur soap and hot water at bedtime, allowing the suds to dry and remain on the face during the night, is to be recommended. An ointment consisting of half a dram of precipitated sulphur with half an ounce each of powdered starch and vaseline applied each night, and hot water used on the face three times daily are also efficacious. Sulphur lotion is better than sulphur ointment.

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Symptoms. The eyes feel weary and “as if there were sand in them.” There may be also smarting, burning, or itching of the lids, and there is disinclination for any prolonged use of the eyes. The lids, when examined, are found to be much deeper red than usual, and slightly swollen, but there is no discharge from the eye, and this fact serves to distinguish this mild type of inflammation from the more severe form.

Treatment. The use of dark glasses and a few drops of zinc sulphate solution (one grain to the ounce of water) in the eye, three times daily, will often cure the trouble. If this does not do so within a few days then an oculist should be consulted, and it will frequently be found that glasses are needed to secure freedom from irritation of the eyes. In using “eye drops” the head should be held back, and several drops be squeezed from a medicine dropper into the inner corner of the eye.

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• SORE EYES; CONJUNCTIVITIS
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Symptoms. Acute Bright’s disease may develop suddenly with pallor and puffiness of the face owing to dropsy. The eyelids, ankles, legs, and lower part of the belly are apt to show the dropsy most. There may be nausea, vomiting, pain and lameness in the small part of the back, chills and fever, loss of appetite, and often constipation. In children convulsions sometimes appear. The urine is small in amount, perhaps not more than a cupful in twenty four hours, instead of the normal daily excretion of three pints. Occasionally complete suppression of urine occurs. It is high colored, either smoky or of a porter color, or sometimes a dark or even bright red, from the pressure of blood. Stupor and unconsciousness may supervene in severe cases. Recovery usually occurs, in favorable cases, within a few weeks, with gradually diminishing dropsy and increasing secretion of urine, or the disease may end in a chronic disorder of the kidneys. If acute Bright’s disease is caused by, or complicated with, other diseases, the probable result becomes much more difficult to predict.

Treatment. The failure of the kidneys to perform their usual function of eliminating waste matter from the blood makes it necessary for the skin and bowels to do double duty. The patient should remain in bed and be kept very warm with flannel night clothes and blankets next the body. The diet should consist wholly of milk, a glass every two hours, in those with whom it agrees, and in others gruels may be substituted to some extent. The addition to milk of mineral waters, limewater, small amounts of tea, coffee, or salt often makes it more palatable to those otherwise disliking it. As the patient improves, bread and butter, green and juicy vegetables, and fruits may be permitted. An abundance of pure water is always desirable. The bowels should be kept loose from the outset by salts given in as little water as possible and immediately followed by a glass of pure water. A teaspoonful may be given hourly till the bowels move. Epsom or Glauber’s salts are efficient, but the compound jalap powder is the best purgative. Children, or those to whom these remedies are repugnant, may take the solution of citrate of magnesia, of which the dose is one half to a whole bottle for adults. The skin is stimulated by the patient’s lying in a hot bath for twenty minutes each day or, if this is not possible, by wrapping the patient in a blanket wrung out of hot water and covered by a dry blanket, and then by a rubber or waterproof sheet, and he is allowed to remain in it for an hour with a cold cloth to the head. If the patient takes the hot bath he should be immediately wrapped in warmed blankets on leaving it, and receive a hot drink of lemonade to stimulate sweating.

For treatment of convulsions.

Vomiting is allayed by swallowing cracked ice, single doses of bismuth subnitrate (one quarter teaspoonful) once in three hours, and by heat applied externally over the stomach. Recovery is hastened by avoiding cold and damp, and persisting with a liquid diet for a considerable period. A course of iron is usually desirable after a few weeks have elapsed to improve the quality of the blood; ten drops of the tincture of the chloride of iron taken in water through a glass tube by adults; for children five to ten drops of the syrup of the iodide of iron. In either case the medicine should be taken three times daily after meals.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Louisville lawyer whose firm filed bankruptcy with $16.6 million in debt would pay most of his creditors less than 2 cents on the dollar, under a proposed settlement.

Federal regulators said in court records that the $394,583 settlement would allow Ron Sheffer to “purchase” a discharge.

People work hard only to be screwed over by low life’s that run up unbelievable debts like this and then only have to pay a pittance back. It’s not right!!

Sheffer, 67, has been blocked from discharging his debts because a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that he fraudulently diverted assets to his wife.

The b@#’~~d, owes millions, but tries to rip off his creditors. I hope they take this low life to the cleaners.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee said allowing Sheffer to settle his case would violate public policy and bankruptcy law. Sheffer’s lawyer and the creditors who support the deal say it is the fairest and least expensive way to resolve the case.

My friend doesn’t think that, he’ll loose a lot of money!

They said that Sheffer could retire, leaving creditors with no wages to garnish if he is barred from discharging his debts through bankruptcy.

A hearing is scheduled for June 27 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Louisville.

Under the proposed agreement, Sheffer would pay $80,000 to Ohio Valley and $114,583 to Franklin Bank & Trust Co. of Simpson County. Sheffer’s wife, Anne, and his son, Tom, would pay $200,000 to the Chapter 7 trustee, who would divide it among other creditors.

In court papers, the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee said that would be unfair because Ohio Valley would be paid 32 percent of the amount it is owed and Franklin 4 percent, while the other creditors, who are owed a combined $13.7 million, would get only 1.4 cents on the dollar.

Typical, the small guys get the crumbs. Everything about this just stinks and should not be happening.

My friend expects to do badly out of this one, bankruptcy shouldn’t be so easy.

Article source http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/14849396.htm