PERTUSSIS OR WHOOPING-COUGH 147 



rods, each about T2To o inch long. They may be 

 cultivated at body temperature on media containing 

 blood or blood serum. They produce disease by their 

 presence and by some form of toxin little understood. 

 The disease does not affect animals. 



PERTUSSIS OR WHOOPING-COUGH. 



Many different organisms have been held responsible 

 for this disease. The one now holding the field was 

 described by Bordet and Gengou several years ago, 

 but only cultivated artificially within the last few 

 years. 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-devia- 

 tion, 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 influenza 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 



