DescriptionAmong the diseases incident to the human body, those which have raged as epidemics, have particularly attracted the attention of physicians. At no period of life is a contagious disease more distressing than during infancy and childhood: in that helpless stage of life symptoms must be more manifest before they can be known; and when they are known, much difficulty attends the administration of remedies for their relief. I have for these reasons chosen the subject of this dissertation, the [Whooping] Cough, Pertussis, a disease, which, though it commonly affects infants and children, yet sometimes attacks any age and sex, and has at times put on such serious symptoms as to be fatal.