Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-11-20
TO the Editor of the Bismarck Trib-

une:
In Thursdays issue of the Tribune
there appears an article on .Infantile
Paralysis, purported to have been is
! sued by the socalled National League
of Medical Freedom. The article is
a direct insult to the medical profess
sion and treats as a mere joke, or
even as an imaginary condition dis
ease, which, owing to it's increasing
prevalence. has become one of our
most important and most dreaded
diseases. Blighting as it does, the
lives of the young, often permanently
disabling our loved ones, it has es-
pecially appealed to human sympathy
and has stimulated efforts along the
scientific lines to solve its difficult
problems. While it is true that some
| of the more important features have
not yet been worked out, os the caus-
alive organism, the question of I'M
munity and a curative or propnylactic
disease has progressed with such sure,
swift steps, that the earl yattainment
of rairly complete knowledge of the
disease is very promising.
Ridiculing such men as Flexner and
Lewis, who have devoted their entire
time for the last three years to a
solution of this problem, who are con.
tinually subjecting themselves to the
many dangers associated with the eX-
periments, for the sake of relieving
suffering humanity fro mthis dread.
full scourages. The National League
of Medical Freedom calls the profes.
sion co-political School, Who
and what is this National League for
Medical Freedom? During the last
session OF congress bill was intro
duced by the profession at large for
the creation of department of healtr
whose head was to be member of
the cabinet. The National Conserva-
ton congress recently in session in
St. Paul. adopted platform setting
forth the views of the delegates as
to the duty of federal and state gov
ernments in conserving the natural
and vital resources Of the nation.
One of the planks unanimously
adopted by the committee on resolu-
tons, and later by the convention it.
self, endorsed the establishment of a
department of health by the nation
al government, eVincing thereby, the
sentiment of the general public.
A few disgruntled or unsuccessful
practitioners of medicine, eclectics,
osteopaths, christian scientists and
other unrecognized schools OF healing,
Observation-Disclosures and anti-vivisec
tionists conceived the idea of forming
a society for the purpose of defeating
this bill, because they could not see
anything lin it" for themselves, and
called themselves The National
League for Medical Freedom. The
league was then incorporated with d.
rectors, representing all the above
paths" and "ists," and attorneys en-
ployed to oppose the bill at Washing.
ton.
Their literature is being sent broad
cast over the country, irrespective OF
the detrimental effect which such pre-
varications and Misrepresentation
may have upon unsuspecting human
ity.
"Infantile paralysis is not a new
bugbear, although it has been widely
heralded as the most modern of all
mysterious Diseases
The wr..er is either very ignorant
or maliciously misrepresents the pre-
vailing knowledge the profession has
of this disease. Prior to 1907 infan-
tile paralysis occurred only varely in
this country, and appeared only in the
sparadic form. Since 1907 it has pre-
vailed from the Atlantic to the Pa
fat n.
tirely escaped its ravages.
Before 1907, epidemic poliomyelities
had been becoming more frequent in
northern Europe, and particularly as
reports indicate, in Scandinavia.
Beginning in 1907 or Whereabouts,
epidemics of the disease arose in the |
United States, Austria, Germany and |
latterly in France. I
1t is matter of significance that |
the original foci Of the epidemic dis
ease in the United States, occurring in
the summer of 1907, were among the
Atlantic seaboard, and that the two
centers of population most seriously
affected were about Greater New
York and Boston, these two places
receiving first and in most con-
centrated way the immigrant popu-
lation from northern and eastern
Europe.
1t is also significant that the second
large isolated outbreak of the disease
n this country occurred about Min
nesota which receives large influx
of immigrant population from Norway
and Sweden, where in the last decade
or two epidemic poliomyelitis has been
recorded.
Experiments on monkeys have |
shown that the disease can be trans |
mitted from one to the other; that, |
if a monkey RECEIVERS from an attack
he becomes immune to further in
oculation.
The spinal fluid of a monkey suf-
fering from the disease, injected in
to healthy monkey, will invariably
cause the disease. So lar it has been
to isolate the germ and
the most powerful microscopes have ;
been unable to demonstrate the nature
of the organism.
The disease occurs most frequent
ly during the mild summer months and