BY OLIVER R. KING, M. D., NEW YORK

Hooping cough, though seldom a fatal disease when uncomplicated, is often the source of much vexation to the physician, from the obstinacy with which it resists every remedy employed. We have as yet no drug that can be considered a specific for this disease, and probably shall never find any one remedy capable of effecting a cure in every case; but if, by a comparison of cases and the treatment employed in their cure, we can arrive at the symptoms which shall indicate the proper remedy in any given case, we shall have made a great advance on the present tentative mode of treatment. With this object I would make known the remedies used by me in some twenty cases successfully treated during the past six months. When I say successfully treated, I mean that they were all cured, with two exceptions, in from two days to two weeks after the first exhibition of the remedies employed. These remedies are:

Drosera, Corallia rubra, Coccionella septempunctata, Cuprum and Ipecacuanha; enumerated in the order of their importance.

I feel satisfied from my own experience, and I think that the experience of others will confirm the assertion, that Drosera and Corallia will cure the majority of all cases. But to get this result, it is absolutely necessary that the Drosera should not be used in too low a dilution.

When in the habit of using the Drosera in mother tincture, or third dilution at highest, I do not remember ever seeing any good effect from it in this disease, and like many others at the present time, thought Hahnemann had greatly overrated its value; but since I have tried from the thirtieth to the two hundredth, I prescribe it with confidence, feeling that there is at least an even chance of its effecting a cure.

Corallia rubra is indicated when there is a violent, dry, spasmodic cough, or when there is but a slight accumulation of mucus in the air passages; in these cases its action is usually rapid and complete, frequently removing all traces of the cough in a few days.

Coccionella septempunctata is a valuable remedy in this as well as other spasmodic coughs. The Coccus cacti, or common Mexican cochineal, has been long used empirically in this disease, and probably possesses analogous medicinal properties. The septempunctata is the well known lady bug, or lady bird of our gardens, and is particularly partial to the rose bush. I gathered enough from three rose bushes to prepare the tincture which I now use. The indications for its use are a violent spasmodic cough, with expectoration of white or transparent, ropy, tenacious mucus; and frequently ending in retching or vomiting.

Cuprum seems particularly applicable to those cases complicated by convulsions, also when there is a great accumulation of mucus in the bronchial tubes, with difficult breathing and rattling in the chest.

Mrs. R—-called upon me early in September last to prescribe for her two children, the one five and the other two years old, who had contracted Hooping cough while in the country. The cough in each case was violent, frequently accompanied by vomiting, and bleeding from the nose, and once in the younger by bleeding from the eyes. I prescribed Dros.³⁰ three times a day, to be given to both for three days.

On the evening of the second day I was sent for in haste, and on going found the younger child lying in convulsions. A loud rattling in the trachea could be heard at every inspiration, and on applying the ear to the chest the same could be heard in all the large bronchial tubes; beyond these there was no sound, the air apparently not penetrating the smaller air-tubes. I immediately gave Cuprum⁶, and in a few minutes the convulsions ceased, and there was no return of them. I left Cuprum⁶ to be alternated with Ipecac.³ every three hours. At the end of a week the child was free from cough and as well as ever. The elder child receiving no benefit from the Dros., and the cough being comparatively dry, I prescribed Corallia³ to be taken three times a day. Under the use of this the cough speedily became modified, and in about ten days had disappeared, without the use of any other remedy.

About the same time Doctor S——an allopathic physician requested me to prescribe for his child eighteen months old; saying that he had tried everything he knew of for Hooping cough, but that his child only got worse, and that he did not believe it could live another week unless relieved. The cough had lasted six weeks; the paroxysms were violent and of long duration, terminating with vomiting of large quantities of thick white and yellow mucus, with which the air passages seemed filled. I gave him four or five drops of Dros.³⁰ on Sac. Lact., to be dissolved in a tumbler half full of water, and a tea-spoonfull given three times a day. I did not see him for a week afterwards, when on enquiring about his child, and if he had tried the medicine I gave him, he said he had, and that the child was so well as to need nothing more.

Mrs. V—–, whoso child I had previously cured of Hooping cough with Coccion-sept.³, was attacked with the same while on a visit to Philadelphia, and was treated for it there without benefit. Returning I found her suffering from frequent paroxysms of cough, with expectoration of tenacious white, and sometimes yellowish mucus. The cough deprived her of sleep and nourishment, for whatever she ate was vomited up at the next return of the cough. She also complained of great pain in the eyes, which were swollen and protruded. I gave her Dros.³⁰ once in six hours, and in two days she was free from cough.

I will only mention one other case which was complicated with dysentery. The child, fourteen months old, had been treated homoeopathically, allopathically, and empirically for ten weeks, and had been getting continually worse, until the physician who was attending it said it could not live twelve hours. I found the child wasted to a skeleton, the paroxysms of cough very severe and occurring with intermissions of only a few minutes, followed by vomiting of ropy mucus. There was great congestion of the head, with burning heat of the whole surface; pulse small and too rapid to be counted; and the child so weak as not to be able to move itself. At every turn of coughing there was a dysenteric evacuation followed by much straining. The stools consisted of green and yellow mucus mixed with considerable blood. Life was evidently flickering, and unless these frequent discharges could be checked, would soon be put out.

Aconite, one drop of the tincture in half a tumbler of water, alternated with Pulsatilla³, prepared in the same manner, a tea-spoonfull every hour and a half, removed all the dysenteric symptoms in twenty four hours, and Corallia³, once in six hours cured the cough in three or four days.