The seriousness of pertussis in the infant, its tendency to be complicated by pneumonia, emphysema, convulsions and perhaps paralysis, and the possibility of a fatal termination, have caused this disease to occupy a prominent place in the minds of all physicians, particularly as it is so commonly seen in infancy, 50 per cent. of all cases occurring in the first two years of life. As the treatment of pertussis by drugs is so unsatisfactory, it is important that any new treatment that offers a reasonable hope of success should be thoroughly tested.
Pertussis is undoubtedly contagious and positively due to a microorganism, and it seems to me that the bacillus described by Bordet and Gay in "Studies in Immunity" has many claims to the position of the specific pathogenic organism.
Bordet and Gengou1 claim to have found the true bacillus of pertussis. They assert that the bacillus is found