Hooping-cough is emphatically a disease of the young; it is rare for adults to have it; if they do, they usually suffer more severely than children. A child seldom has it but once in his life. It is highly contagious, and therefore frequently runs through a whole family of children, giving much annoyance, anxiety, and trouble to the mother and the nurses; hence hooping-cough is much dreaded by them. It is amenable to treatment. Spring and summer are the best seasons of the year for the disease to occur. This complaint usually lasts from six to twelve weeks--sometimes for a much longer period, more especially if proper means are not employed to relieve it. Hooping-cough commences as a common cold and cough. The cough, for ten days or a fortnight, increases in intensity; at about which time it puts on the characteristic "hoop." The attack of cough comes on in paroxysms. In a paroxysm, the child coughs so long and so violently, and _expires_ so much air from the lungs without _inspiring_ any, that at times he appears nearly suffocated and exhausted; the veins of his neck swell; his face is nearly purple; his eyes, with the tremendous exertion, almost seem to start from their sockets; at length there is a sudden _inspiration_ of air through the contracted chink of the upper part of the wind-pipe--the glottis--causing the peculiar "hoop;" and after a little more coughing, he brings up some glairy mucus from the chest; and sometimes, by vomiting, food from the stomach; he is at once relieved, until the next paroxysm occur, when the same process is repeated, the child during the intervals, in a favourable case, appearing quite well, and after the cough is over, instantly returning either to his play or to his food. Generally, after a paroxysm he is hungry, unless, indeed, there be severe inflammation either of the chest or of the lungs. Sickness, as I before remarked, frequently accompanies hooping-cough; when it does, it might be looked upon as a good sign. The child usually knows when an attack is coming on; he dreads it, and therefore tries to prevent it; he sometimes partially succeeds; but, if he does, it only makes the attack, when it does come, more severe. All causes of irritation and excitement ought, as much as possible, to be avoided, as passion is apt to bring on a severe paroxysm. A new-born babe--an infant of one or two months old--commonly escapes the infection; but if, at that tender age, he unfortunately catch hooping-cough, it is likely to fare harder with him than if he were older--the younger the child, the greater the risk. But still, in such a case, do not despair, as I have known numerous instances of new-born infants, with judicious care, recover perfectly from the attack, and thrive after it as though nothing of the kind had ever happened.