Laryngology and Folk-lore

Abstract

IN a recent paper (J. Laryng. and, Otol., 57, 527; 1942) on this subject, Dr. J. D. Bolleston states that up to the time of Morgagni (1682-1771), who described several cases in which it was diseased, the larynx occupied a very subordinate place in pathology, its existence being almost ignored by ordinary students of medicine. On the other hand, there are several references in classical antiquity to popular methods of dealing with diseases of the throat, as can be seen by references to them in Celsus, Pliny, Marcellus Empiricus and Julius Modestus. In the Middle Ages a combination of folk-lore with orthodox practice is illustrated by the fact that Aetius of Amida (fourth century A.D.) recommended that after other methods had failed to remove a foreign body from the throat it should be invoked in the name of St. Blaise, the patron saint for diseases of this kind, “to come up or go down”. In the eighteenth century, numerous popular terms, especially in Scotland, were given to a special form of laryngitis occurring in children, such as 'croup', 'croops', 'chock', 'stuffing' or 'rising of the lights'. As in the case of many other diseases and morbid conditions, folk-lore has only a few prophylactic measures compared with curative treatment, while its therapy can be grouped under animal remedies, plant remedies, patron saints and miscellaneous remedies.