be shorter or longer. It is during this time that complications are apt to arise which may become a source of danger greater even than the malady itself. The chief of these are inflammatory affections of the bronchi and lungs and convulsions, any of which may prove fatal. When, however, the disease progresses favourably, the third or terminal stage is announced by the less frequent paroxysms of the cough, which generally loses in great measure its “whooping” character. The patient’s condition altogether undergoes amendment, and the symptoms disappear in from one to three weeks. It is to be observed, however, that for a long period afterwards in any simple catarrh from which the patient suffers the cough often assumes a spasmodic character, which may suggest the erroneous notion that a relapse of the whooping-cough has occurred.
In severe cases it occasionally happens that the disease leaves behind it such structural changes in the lungs (emphysema, &c.), as entail permanent shortness of breathing or a liability to attacks of asthma. Further, whooping-cough is well known to be one of those diseases of early life which are apt to give rise to a weakened and vulnerable state of the general health, or to call into activity any inherited morbid tendency, such as that towards consumption.
As regards the treatment in mild cases, little is necessary beyond keeping the patient warm and carefully attending to the general health. The remedies applicable in the case of catarrh or the milder forms of bronchitis are of service here, while gentle counter-irritation to the chest by stimulating liniments may be employed all through the attack. In mild weather the patient may be in the open air. An abdominal binder should be worn night and day in order to prevent the occurrence of hernia. Systematic disinfection of the sputum by means of a solution of corrosive sublimate or by burning should be practised in order to check the spread of infection. In the more severe forms efforts have to be employed to modify the severity of the paroxysms. Numerous remedies are recommended, the chief of which are the bromides of ammonium or potassium, chloral, codeine, &c. These can only be safely administered under medical advice, and with due regard to the symptoms in individual cases. During convalescence, where the cough still continues to be troublesome, a change of air will often effect its removal.
WHYMPER, EDWARD (1840–), British artist, explorer and mountaineer, was born in London on the 27th of April 1840. The son of an artist, he was at an early age trained to the profession of a wood-engraver. In 1860 he was commissioned to make a series of sketches of Alpine scenery, and undertook an extensive journey in the Central and Western Alps. Among the objects of this tour was the illustration of an attempt, which proved unsuccessful, made by Professor Bonney’s party to ascend Mont Pelvoux, at that time believed to be the highest peak of the Dauphiné Alps. He successfully accomplished the ascent in 1861—the first of a series of expeditions that threw much light on the topography of a district at that time very imperfectly mapped. From the summit of Mont Pelvoux he discovered that it was overtopped by a neighbouring peak, subsequently named the Pointe des Écrins, which, before the annexation of Savoy added Mont Blanc to the possessions of France, was the highest point in the French Alps. Its ascent by Mr Whymper’s party in 1864 was perhaps the most remarkable feat of mountaineering up to that date. The years 1861 to 1865 were filled with a number of new expeditions in the Mont Blanc group and the Pennine Alps, among them the ascent of the Aiguille Verte and the crossing of the Moming Pass. Professor Tyndall and Mr Whymper emulated each other in fruitless attempts to reach the summit of the Matterhorn by the south-western or Italian ridge. Whymper, six times repulsed, determined to try the eastern face, convinced that its precipitous appearance when viewed from Zermatt was an optical illusion, and that the dip of the strata, which on the Italian side formed a continuous series of overhangs, should make the opposite side a natural staircase. His attempt by what is now the usual route was crowned with success (14th of July 1865); but on the descent four of the party slipped and were killed, and only the breaking of the rope saved Mr Whymper and the two remaining guides from the same fate. The account of his attempts on the Matterhorn occupies the greater part of his Scrambles amongst the Alps (1871), in which the illustrations are engraved by the author himself, and are very beautiful. His campaign of 1865 had been planned to exercise his judgment in the choice of routes as a preparation for an expedition to Greenland (1867). This resulted in an important collection of fossil plants, which were described by Professor Heer and deposited in the British Museum. Mr Whymper’s report was published in the Report of the British Association for the year 1869. Though hampered by a want of means and by the prevalence of an epidemic among the natives, he proved that the interior could be explored by the use of suitably constructed sledges, and thus contributed an important advance to Arctic exploration. Another expedition followed in 1872, and was devoted to a survey of the coast-line. He next organized an expedition to Ecuador, designed primarily to collect data for the study of mountain-sickness and the effect of reduced pressure on the human frame. He took as his chief guide as Jean-Antoine Carrel, whose subsequent death from exhaustion on the Matterhorn after bringing his employers into safety through a snowstorm forms one of the noblest pages in the history of mountaineering. During 1880 Mr Whymper on two occasions ascended Chimborazo, whose summit, 20,500 ft. above sea level, had never before been reached; spent a night on the summit of Cotopaxi, and made first ascents of half-a-dozen other great peaks. In 1892 he published the results of his journey in a volume entitled Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator. His observations on mountain-sickness led him to conclude that it was caused by “diminution in atmospheric pressure, which operates in at least two ways—namely, (a) by lessening the value of the air that can be inspired in any given time, and, (b) by causing the air or gas within the body to expand, and to press upon the internal organs”; and that “the effects produced by (b) may be temporary and pass away when equilibrium has been restored between the internal and external pressure.” The publication of his work was recognized on the part of the Royal Geographical Society by the award of the Patron’s medal. His experiences in South America having convinced him of certain serious errors in the readings of aneroid barometers at high altitudes, he published a work entitled How to Use the Aneroid Barometer, and succeeded in introducing important improvements in their construction. He afterwards published two guide-books to Zermatt and Chamonix. In 1901–1905 he undertook an expedition in the region of the Great Divide of the Canadian Rockies.
WHYTE, ALEXANDER (1837– ), Scottish divine, was born at Kirriemuir in Forfarshire on the 13th of January 1837, and was educated at the university of Aberdeen and at New College, Edinburgh. He entered the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland and after serving as colleague in Free St John’s, Glasgow (1866–1870), removed to Edinburgh as colleague and successor to Dr R. S. Candlish at Free St George’s. In 1909 he succeeded Dr Marcus Dods as principal, and professor of New Testament literature, at New College, Edinburgh.
Among his publications are Characters and Characteristics of William Law (1893); Bunyan Characters (3 vols., 1894); Samuel Rutherford (1894); An Appreciation of Jacob Behmen (1895); Lancelot Andrewes and his Private Devotions (1895); Bible Characters (7 vols., 1897); Santa Teresa (1897); Father John of Cronstadt (1898); An Appreciation of Browne’s Religio Medici (1898); Cardinal Newman, An Appreciation (1901).
WHYTE-MELVILLE, GEORGE JOHN (1821–1878), English novelist, son of John Whyte-Melville of Strathkinness, Fifeshire, and grandson on his mother’s side of the 5th duke of Leeds, was born on the 19th of June 1821. Whyte-Melville received his education at Eton, entered the army in 1839, became captain in the Coldstream Guards in 1846 and retired in 1849. After translating Horace (1850) in fluent and graceful verse, he published his first novel, Digby Grand, in 1853. The unflagging verve and intimate technical knowledge with which he described sporting scenes and sporting characters at once drew attention to him as a novelist with a new vein. He was the laureate of fox-hunting;
