when the child is
awake, but when asleep--and the sleep is generally uneasy--it often
breathes with its mouth open, it snores slightly, or there is a little
hoarse sound accompanying the breathing owing to a trivial swelling of
the throat; while, if sought for, there will generally be found a very
little enlargement, and a very little tenderness of the glands at the
corner of the lower jaw. The eyes are sometimes tearful, there may be
slight running at the nose, and the child is said to have a bad cold
with slight sore-throat--the most remarkable feature of the case being
generally that the depression of the patient is out of proportion to the
severity of the local ailment. If now the throat is examined--and
examination of the throat should never be omitted in any case where
there is the slightest difficulty of swallowing--nothing may at first be
seen but a very little swelling, and some redness of one or other
tonsil. In a few hours more, white specks like little bits of curd will
be seen first on one tonsil, then on the other, and next these specks
will have united to form one continuous layer of a sort of
yellowish-white membrane over the palate and tonsils. The examination of
the throat, often so difficult when children are ill, is attended with
almost none, if while they are well they have been taught the little
trick of opening their mouths to show their throat, and of allowing the
introduction of a spoon to keep down the tongue, a proceeding which
though certainly unpleasant they will almost always readily agree to,
like Martha Trapbois, in the 'Fortunes of Nigel,' 'for a consideration.'
The deposit on the throat may disappear of its own accord, and not be
reproduced, and this even though no treatment has been adopted, and in
two or three days the child may be pretty well again, though strength is
in general regained less rapidly than might have been expected from the
comparative mildness of the attack.

In cases so slight it is no easy matter to recognise the features of a
highly dangerous disease; still, out of forerunners so trivial as these,
croupal symptoms may be developed, and their advances may be most
insidious, and unless both parents and doctor have been closely on the
watch they may be surprised all at once by the breathing suddenly
becoming very laboured, by that and the cough becoming attended by the
sounds characteristic of croup, and by the child's life being in extreme
jeopardy, or in danger eve