PERTUSSIS OR WHOOPING-COUGH 133 



PERTUSSIS OR WHOOPING-COUGH. 



This easily communicable disease is caused by the bacillus 

 of Bordet and Gengou, a congener of the influenza organism. 

 Although the discoverers failed to produce the typical disease 

 in monkeys when using this bacillus, nevertheless they hold 

 that the presence of agglutinin and a refined blood reaction, 

 called complement-deviation, in the blood of patients are 

 sufficient to convict it of being the cause of whooping-cough. 

 They assert that endotoxins are formed. By making sections 

 of the larynx and trachea these rods have been found lying 

 between the delicate cilia on the free surface of the mucous 

 membrane. It is supposed that they impede the action of 

 these cilia and that efforts to dislodge them form the basis 

 of the whooping paroxysm. The disease is transferred 

 directly from one patient to another by means of spray from 

 coughing, spitting, or talking. The rod grows only at body 

 temperature in the presence of blood or its coloring matter. 

 It is very like the Bacillus influenzce in size and shape. It 

 is found in the sputum early in the disease as a small ovoid 

 polar staining rod, arranged in pairs end to end. It is stained 

 easily. It does not produce the disease in animals. Sputum 

 should be received in 5 per cent, carbolic acid, and cloths 

 used to wipe the mouth should be soaked in the same solution. 



No antiserum of any value has been devised, but some 

 observers report encouragingly upon vaccine treatment and 

 prophylaxis. 



