alling.

As the same great nerves which supply the lungs supply the stomach, the
irritation frequently "radiates," or spills over, from one division of
it to the other, and the coughing fit is frequently followed by
vomiting. Unexpectedly enough this may often become the most serious
practical symptom of the disease, inasmuch as the stomach is emptied so
frequently that the poor little victim is unable to retain any
nourishment long enough to absorb it, and may waste away frightfully,
and even literally starve to death, or have its resisting power so
greatly lowered that an attack of bronchial trouble or bowel disturbance
will prove rapidly fatal.

So serious are the disturbances of the circulation all over the body by
these spasmodic suffocation-fits, that rupture of small blood-vessels
may occur in the eyes, the brain, in the lungs, and on the surface of
the skin. The heart becomes distended, and if originally weakened may be
seriously dilated or overstrained; the lungs become congested and
inflamed, and any of the numerous accidental germs which may be present
will set up a broncho-pneumonia, which is the commonest cause of death
in this disease, as in measles.

Strangely enough, while, as we do not positively know the germ, and
hence cannot state definitely either the cause or the principal seat of
the trouble, it is not generally believed that the condition of the
lungs or the throat has much to do with the cough.

At all events, it is perfectly idle to treat the disease with cough
mixtures or expectorants. The view toward which the majority of
intelligent observers are inclined is that whooping-cough is an
infection, the germ or toxin of which attacks the nervous system, and
particularly the great "lung-stomach" (pneumo-gastric) nerve. At all
events, the only remedies which appear to have any effect upon the
disease are, in the early stages, mild local antiseptics in the nose and
throat, and later those which diminish the irritability of the nerves
without upsetting the appetite or depressing the general vigor. The
disease is, for all its mildness, one of the most obstinate known.

A small percentage of cases run a violent course, in spite of the most
intelligent and anxious care, both medical and household; but the vast
majority of such complications as occur are either caused by
carelessness or become serious only if neglected. Treating all children
with whooping-cough as emphatically sick children, entitle