USE OF RESORCINE IN 
WHOOPING-COUGH. 
By / 
JOHN W. FARLOW, M. D., 
Physician for Diseases of the Throat to the Carney Hospital and Boston 
Dispensary, Instructor in Laryngology in the Boston Polyclinic. 
Reprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 
of February 27, i8go. 
BOSTON: 
DAMRELL & UPHAM, Publishers, 
283 Washington Street. 
1890. S- j. PARKHILL 4. CO., PRINTERS 
BOSTON USE OF RESORCINE IN WHOOPING-COUGH.i 
BY JOHN W. F ARROW, M.D., 
Physician for Diseases of the Throat to the Carney Hospital and 
Boston Dispensary, Instructor in Laryngology in the Boston Poly- 
clinic. 
It is probable that no disease has been combatted 
unsuccessfully with a larger number and a greater 
variety of drugs than has whooping-cough. Sedatives, 
antispasmodics, anaesthetics, alteratives, tonics, astrin- 
gents, vapors, inhalations, change of climate, sea-voy- 
ages have all been tried and still the old rule of “ six 
weeks coming and six weeks going,” holds more or less 
true in the great majority of cases. 
That it is contagious and attacks the same person 
only once has led it to be considered a germ disease 
and numerous investigators have undertaken to dis- 
cover its cause. Affanassieff2 claims to have found a 
bacillus in pertussis which can be cultivated, causes 
convulsive cough in animals and is found post-mortem 
in the respiratory mucous membranes, always in the 
bronchi, sometimes in the trachea and even in the nose 
and the foci of broncho-pneumonia. 
Dr. Smetchenko found this microbe in fourteen 
consecutive cases, four of which were fatal, while it 
was always absent in bronchitis, asthma, catarrhal pneu- 
monia and tuberculosis. It appears in the sputum in 
the catarrhal stage, somewhere about the fourth day 
1 Read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, 
January 13, 1890. 
2 Baumgarten: Lelirbuch der Pathologiscben Mykologie, 1888, p. 
734. 2 
of the disease. Later, it increases in number in pro- 
portion to the increase of the paroxysms and disappears 
from the discharge somewhat before the complete ces- 
sation of the whoops. When pertussis becomes compli- 
cated with pneumonia the bacilli increase immensely. 
It was killed during cultivation when the medium 
(jelly) contained corrosive sublimate 1 to 60,000, re- 
sorcine or phenol 1 to 1,200 or by biochlorate of qui- 
nine 1 to 800. 
Wendt8 was unable to detect the bacteria so early 
and found no proportion between their number and 
the paroxysms. He found them also after the whoops 
had ceased. 
The above observations, like many other statements 
are important if true, but they need verification. 
Without expressing an opinion as to their correctness, 
it is, of course, possible to test clinically the value of 
the solutions which are said to be fatal to the bacillus. 
Dr. Moncorvo of Rio de Janeiro has reported in detail 
in a pamphlet entitled, “ De la Coqueluche et de Son 
Traitement par la Resorcine,” a large number of cases 
treated by the topical application to the larynx of a one 
or two per cent, solution of resorcine. Many of these 
were severe and complicated cases, but all were soon 
cured, some in a few days. 
Resorcine in an aqueous solution of this strength 
has practically no taste or odor, does not irritate the 
mucous membranes and is not poisonous. A five per 
cent, solution seems to irritate and I found a two per 
cent, solution sufficient. I will give some of the 
details of its use in two cases of the same family. A 
and B, aged seven and five years, had been coughing 
for two weeks, the severe, incessant, nagging cough of 
the first stage of pertussis. Ordinary treatment had 
almost no effect and applications of cocaine, even up to 
8 Med. News, Philadelphia, June 2, 1888. 3 
twenty per cent., were of very little use. The whoop- 
ing stage now commenced with considerable violence, 
so that the younger child was not able to eat any of 
his meals without vomiting everything, and his sleep 
was so broken that during the day he had to be 
held by his nurse in order that he might get a 
little sleep by resting his head against her shoulder. 
The whoops were very marked and there was an ulcer 
of the frenum linguae and the pharynx and larynx were 
very red. The condition of the older child was not so 
bad, for she did not vomit so many of her meals and she 
slept better at night. 
After this state of affairs had lasted for two or 
three days, I began the use of the two per cent, solu- 
tion of resorcine with my compressed air apparatus. 
I sprayed it into the nose, the pharynx and larynx 
every two hours. The first day I noticed but little 
change, but the younger child slept from eleven at 
night till four in the morning without coughing. The 
next day the paroxysms were much less frequent and 
the children slept practically all night and by the fourth 
day the cough had disappeared and the children were 
perfectly well. The atomizations were continued for a 
few days as a precaution, but there was no return of 
the cough and the children remained in perfect health. 
For the younger child I also used at night what is 
called cresoline, apparently an impure creasote. I 
heated this over a lamp and the dense fumes smelling 
like carbolic acid, filled the room. I did not use this 
with the older child. 
The symptoms of both cases were so marked that 
the diagnosis was certain. Other cases from the 
same school, less severe, lasted over two months, where- 
as these two cases were apparently aborted by the 
treatment. I had charge of two other young children 
soon after, one six and the other two. I showed the 4 
mother how to use the atomizer and these cases were 
very soon relieved. The mother told me chat the 
cough was practically gone in a week after treatment 
was begun, while three children in the next house 
continued to cough for two months. I have not the 
notes of all the cases I have treated, but in all the 
relief was immediate and very marked, the disease 
seeming to be choked olf. 
Dr. George G. Sears writes me that he has used 
resorcine in a two to four per cent, solution in four 
cases, in all of which it proved extremely satisfactory. 
In a week to ten days the paroxysmal character of 
the cough had entirely disappeared, leaving only the 
cough which could easily be accounted for by the 
accompanying bronchitis. Dr. George Haven has 
used a one to two per cent, solution in six dispen- 
sary cases, in which the treatment was necessarily 
irregular, yet great relief was experienced in live cases, 
while in one it was entirely unsuccessful. Dr. Sears 
and Dr. Haven both found the improvement so imme- 
diate and so marked after a few applications as to 
leave no doubt that it was due to the resorcine. 
With regard to the method of administration, Dr. 
Moncorvo applied the solution on a swab to the laryn- 
geal orifice every two hours. My aim was to apply it 
to as much of the respiratory tract as possible, so I 
sprayed it into the nose, pharynx and larynx with the 
ordinary spray tubes driven by compressed air or hand 
bulbs. Wliy this should be done every two hours 
rather than every hour or every four hours I do not 
know, I simply followed Moncorvo’s directions. No 
symptoms of poisoning, irritation, or any constitutional 
effect were produced in any of my cases. 
Others have reported cases of its successful internal 
administration, a teaspoonful of a one per cent, solu- 
tion every two or three hours. I have had no experi- 5 
ence with this method, and can only refer to the work 
of others. 
Are we justified in drawing a favorable conclusion 
from our experience ? It seems to me that the results 
obtained have been positive, speedy and lasting, evi- 
dent to the child, the parents, the nurse and the doctor. 
Dr. G. Haven : My cases were all in Dispensary 
practice and I saw them not more than once or twice. 
They were undoubted cases of whooping-cough; and 
the relief obtained was certainly very marked. Some 
of the mothers were seen several weeks after the first 
treatment; they could not say too much in favor of 
resorcine and told me that in from three days to a 
week after I first saw the child, the paroxysms had 
been relieved, vomiting stopped, and the child enabled 
to sleep. 
Dr. G. G. Sears : My experience in the use of 
resorcine in whooping-cough has been limited to four 
cases, but as far as it goes it endorses all that Dr. 
Farlow has claimed for this method of treatment. 
Improvement followed so promptly the use of the 
drug, that it left no room for doubt that it was a direct 
effect and not an accidental coincidence nor due to 
that expectant attention which causes the primary suc- 
cess of so many new methods. 
One case is especially noteworthy. The patient, a 
baby five or six months old, had been for a month 
steadily growing worse in spite of the ordinary treat- 
ment to which I added antipyrin and phenacetin in 
fairly large doses. The paroxysms occurred every little 
while during the day, while at night the cough was 
almost constant. She vomitted and was beginning to 
DISCUSSION. 6 
refuse food. All things considered the outlook was 
quite unfavorable. A: this time I happened to meet 
Dr. Farlow to whom 1 mentioned the case, and at his 
suggestion a two per cent, solution of resorcine was 
ordered as a spray every three hours. That night she 
coughed only three or four times; and four days later 
the mother told me she would no longer know the 
baby had whooping-cough. The following day a 
rather sharp attack of gastro-enteritis came on and the 
spray was omitted. The cough immediately returned, 
but upon resuming the spray, the paroxysms promptly 
disappeared and never recurred, although a short hack 
persisted for several weeks. 
Corroborative testimony as to its value, was given 
unconsciously by a little girl of four years. During 
the first three or four applications, she struggled vio- 
lently, but she soon came to realize the relief afforded 
and used to beg for it. 
There was nothing remarkable about the other cases 
except that they recovered with wonderful rapidity. 
Dr. F. B. Harrington : I would like to ask if 
resorcine has any effect in allaying the cough of irri- 
tative bronchitis ? 
Dr. Farlow: I have never tried it for this pur- 
pose. I have, however, used it several times in this 
epidemic influenza, but there have been so many 
symptoms to combat that it was very difficult to decide 
whether the resorcine had any effect. 
I should like to confirm what Dr. Sears has said about 
the corroborative testimony of the children themselves. 
Instead of objecting and being unwilling to have the 
applications made, they sometimes seemed anxious to 
have them made. The spray was applied as in ordi- 
nary laryngitis. Where the applications are made by 
the mother or nurse, it is doubtful if the spray goes 
directly into the glottis. Dr. Moncorvo says that he 7 
made the applications directly to the glottic opening 
with a swab. I am told that Dr. Edward Reynolds 
has used it in this way with favorable results. 
I have had a good many cases of whooping-cough 
at different times and have tried various methods of 
treatment, but I have never found anything before of 
lasting benefit. In the first two cases in which I used 
resorcine I was very sceptical as to its value, and 
when I saw the great relief in one of the children I 
was afraid he was poisoned or narcotized, and exam- 
ined the urine for albumen or suppression. I found 
nothing abnormal, however, the appetite returned and 
the child was apparently perfectly well. 
Dr. T. F. Sherman: I think sulphur fumigation 
was used quite extensively by Dr. Rotcli at the City 
Hospital where the room could be fumigated and the 
children put into it; and I think he reports no suc- 
cess at all. 
Dr. J. B. Ayer : Two years ago quite a number 
of cases in adults came under my observation. In one 
I used cresoline unsuccessfully. 
Dr. F. Minot : These cases recall the popular 
method of taking a child to the gas works and getting 
it to inhale an atmosphere containing some of the pro- 
ducts of the distillation of coal; and there is no ques- 
tion but'what considerable benefit results. 
Dr. Farlow, in closing, said : I have run across a 
number of cases in which this method of treatment 
was reported unsuccessful. I think it possible that 
the successful cases were due to the fact that the treat- 
ment was conscientiously carried out. In the unsuccess- 
ful cases I am not sure that this was the case as it was 
left in the hands of the mother. THE BOSTON 
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