Because of the unpleasant and distressing symptoms of whooping-cough, a large number of drugs, as well as other supposed remedial agents, have been tried in its treatment, all of which have met with more or less failure. Since the discovery of the supposed specific bacillus of whooping-cough by Bordet and Gengou in 1906, the trend has been to develop a specific vaccine or serum.
The bacillus of Bordet and Gengou grows deeply in the remoter parts of the respiratory tract, seldom above the level of the larynx and oftener below it, and is found in largest numbers during the early stage of the disease. It is a small, ovoid bacillus, non-motile, gram-negative, stains feebly with the ordinary basic dyes, and grows best on a mixture of defibrinated human or rabbit's blood with 3 per cent. agar.
In 1909, Lehman,1 a homeopath, reported successful treatment of whooping-cough with coqueluchin, which