— 37 — 
The exceptionally favourable results of this trial have recently been 
published 1) , and we reproduce the following abstract from this inter- 
esting work 2): — 
The experiments extended over 19 cases in which children suffering 
from whooping cough were treated with the remedy in this manner, 
that an alcoholic solution of cypress oil, in the proportion of i part 
oil to 4 parts alcohol, was 4 times daily sprinkled on the coverlet, 
pillow and underclothing of the children. 
Every individual case was studied in detail from beginning to end. 
Without selection, all the children, as they were admitted, both the 
older and younger ones, mostly in the transition from stage i into 
the paroxysmal stage, were treated in the same manner; not one was 
passed over or afterwards omitted. The patients were all placed in 
the detached ward for whooping-cough patients of the division for 
infectious diseases of the hospital for children, in which children who 
were suffering from other affections were under no circumstances ad- 
mitted. In every case the number of paroxysms during 24 hours 
was marked daily by means of lines on the diagram; these were 
marked with control-numbers and specially entered, when at the same 
time the duration and severity of the paroxysm, the duration of the 
free intervals, and all other details were noted. 
It would lead us too far to mention in this place the individual 
history of each case described in detail, and for these particulars we must 
refer to the original. It is a remarkable fact that whenever and wher- 
ever the use of the oil was temporarily discontinued, the symptoms 
of the disease increased. At the end of his work, Soltmann sum- 
marises his experience with cypress oil and says word for word: — 
"In all cases of whooping-cough, both in older and younger children, 
cypress oil reduces the number ot paroxysms promptly and rapidly. It diminishes 
their intensity, shortens their extensity, prolongs the free intervals, removes the 
enfeebling after-effect of the paroxysm and single attack. No injurious action 
on the gastro-intestinal canal, respiratory tract, nervous system, heart, or kidney 
has been observed; on the contrary, the complications v^hich have arisen from 
these are rendered less intense, or are partly removed, and their occurence is 
generally prevented; it therefore shapes the v^hole course of the disease into 
a mild form. These favourable effects are specially noticeable in this , that 
choking and vomiting either do not occur, or rapidly disappear if they were 
present at the commencement of the treatment. Symptoms of suffocation dis- 
appeared rapidly in every case; the cyanotic redness in the face, the distention 
of the veins of the neck, the oedema of the face, became unimportant; ecchymosis 
and bleeding from the nose did not occur; and after a short time no com- 
plaints were heard about pains in the epigastrium and at the sides of the 
^) Keuchhusten und Cypressenol, by Professor Dr. O. Soltmann, Leipzig, 
March 1904. 
^) We shall be pleased to place reprints at the disposal of those who are 
interested in the matter. 
