The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-21
He IS BAFFLED,
DIR. Crumbine Returns From the
Northwest Puzzled.
Epidemic of IRfantile Paralysis
Alarming Indeed.
FOUND FORTY CASES.
Thirteen Persons Have Died
Frem the Disease.
Those Who Recover Are Help
less Cripples.
FOUND FORTY CASES.

DR.. S. c. Crumb ine of the state
board of health returned this morning
! from a trip to Norton and Decatur
counties where he went last week to
investigate the epidemic of infantiIe
paralysis which has broken out in
| these counties. He found conditions
there seven times worse than he had
anticipated. Instead of six cases of
this terrible and mysterious disease as
were reported, he found forty cases.
Thirteen persons have died already
from the disease and it is feared that a
large proportion of those suffering
from 1t now will be left cripples for
life.
DR.. Crumbine will likely return and
make further study of the fatal
malay. In the meantime he today
sent the best bacteriologist in the
state university department to Norton
county to try bv experiment and chem
ical analysis to locate and determine
the character and origin of the bacciIli
that are causing the trouble.
Doctor Is Baff1ed.
The doctor is completely baffied in
arriving at any estimate of this dis
case, its cause, origin or cure. But
for that matter so are the most learn
ed scientists in the east who have had
to contend with the disease in Massa-
chusetts, Brooklyn and Pennsylvania
However, the doctor has made one inn
portant and practical deduction in the
premises, and that is that no case has
been reported from the east or noted
in this state where an infant taking
nourishment exclusively from it's
mothers breast has been afflicted, and
therefore it seems likely that the
germs of the disease must be absorbed
from food or water.
The disease. according to DR.. Crum-
bine is infectious, but not contagious.
BY this is meant that while it is cpl
demic, raging throughout q community
at one time, yet it is not communicated
by direct exposure and still can be
taken by a person who has not been
exposed at all. 1t breaks out in spots
cases in distant localities. There is no
case where more than one member of
the family has been afflicted.
Two Adults Died.
The disease was first noted in Nor
ton and Decatur counties about the
first of August and only one new case
has been reported since September 10.
The majority of the cases are infants
yet there have been two cases of
adults and both those afflicted died
within forty-ieght hours after being |
stricken.
DR.. Crumbine rode night and day |
over the stricken district and confer |
red with the physicians in charge of
the patients trying to discover some |
definite cause of the trouble, some |
germ that might be identified, but to |
use his own expression, he is com |
pletely up in the air. about the mat |
ter. The first symptoms noted are |
generally distress in the stomach and |
bowels followed by severe pains in !
the head. The disease creeps up to |
the trunks from the lower limbs gen. /
orally, but there are cases where 1t
has approached fron4 rhe arms
Left Crippled for Life.
1.-THE horror of the thing" said the |
doctor, lis that those who escape |
death, and the mortality is high, are {
left crippled for life. In Massachu- /
sets out of IS cases, ten died and |
forty-two were left permanently Grip |
pied. We are up against perplexing
problem. The origin of the infection
is unknown, yet we know that it is
intense and virulent. I can only sug-
geSt moderate use of wholesome food,
care about pure water and the neces-
sity of keeping the system clean by
use of laxative medicines. The disease