WHOOPING-COUGH TREATMENT. 103 



with, should deter us from a useless and hazardous search for specific 

 remedies. Unfortunately, the principles of treatment naturally deduciblo 

 from such knowledge are grossly violated by many physicians. Chil- 

 dren are again and again submitted to hurtful exposure, calculated to 

 aggravate the catarrh, because the doctor expects to cure it by the ad- 

 ministration of preparations of copper and zinc, nitrate of silver, vale- 

 rian, assafcetida, castor, or other reputed specific, against whooping- 

 cough ; nay, cantharides, phosphorus, arsenic, and even dried vaccine 

 crusts, pass for remedies for this disorder in the minds of some men, 

 We cannot even ascribe any special curative influence to belladonna, a 

 drug which has acquired great reputation, although we have used it 

 extensively in the treatment of whooping-cough. (See below.) 



Since, then, the complaint is to be treated upon principles laid down 

 for the treatment of other catarrhs, we need not expect great results 

 from the use of medicaments. We have already called attention to the 

 very questionable virtues of sal-ammoniac, the antimonials, and other 

 anti-catarrhal " remedies," and hence are decidedly averse to their em- 

 ployment in the therapeusis of whooping-cough. On the other hand, 

 we attach great value to well-managed treatment by sweating, the 

 efficacy of which, in both recent and inveterate catarrhs of other origin, 

 I have already insisted upon so urgently. Oppolzer believes it possible 

 to bring the malady to a close in a few weeks, by carefully and con- 

 tinuously maintaining a uniform temperature in the sick-room. Al- 

 though such a statement may be a somewhat exaggerated one, yet I 

 have long since adopted the practice, and in many instances strictly and 

 perseveringly carried it out with the most gratifying results. When 

 the disease is recent, I put the child to bed, and keep it in a slight but 

 continual perspiration. Very young children must not lie in a cradle, 

 but should remain in bed alongside of their nurse or mother, where 

 they soon get into perspiration. Besides, they should w T ear a woollen 

 sock round the throat, and wear flannel next the skin, upon the chest. 

 Throughout the warm season of the year, the patients may be kept in 

 the open air ; but we should insist upon their returning to their apart- 

 ments ere the cool of the evening set in. As a drink, give Seltzer 

 water, either warm or mixed with hot milk ; in short, treat the catarrh 

 as if it proceeded from cold, or had any other non-specific origin. 

 Treatment by inhalation of pulverized medicaments may possibly prove 

 beneficial ; but we have not as yet a sufficient number of observations to 

 establish the fact. The symptomatic indication, first of all, calls for 

 means of abbreviating the paroxysms of coughing, and of diminishing 

 their frequency. It cannot be ignored that the coughing-fits contribute 

 materially toward keeping up the irritation of the mucous membrane. 

 The longer and more violent the last attack, so much the sooner may 



