The Washington times., 1910-07-30
GOVERNMENT PLANS
AN INVESTIGATION Of
INFANTILE MALADY
Probe of Disease So Deadly
to Children Will Be
Thorough
MANY EXPERIMENTS
TO BE CONDUCTED
Announcement Made to Times To-
day by Dr. John F.
Anderson.

! InfartHe paraIysis or anter polio
/ mvelitis, the mysterious maIgdv that is
I prevalent I'm Washington and ether cities
/ IN the country and eXEctiLE ar appalling
/ infantie death Toll. will be . subject for
/ thOrouSh Investigation by the UniteI
States fiOvcTnD ent. according TO an an
n0Uncement made today by Or John r.
Anderson. director Of the hv=ienic lab
/ OratoTy Of the Public Health and Marine
/ Hospital SeTvfcc.
/ The anuoUn cement was made today by
/ Dr. Anderson. following g brief confer
! ence with DIT. Walter WyTuan. surgeon
| general Of tFs de7artment-
/ About the same time the Health De-
/ partmelt reported one death from. and
/ two new cases OF, the disease
To Determine Cause.
Experiments to determine the cause
Of the disease and to account for its
/ spread among infants viii be conducted
T by Dr. Anderson and his stan. the cause
and nature Of the germ now being
practical mystery to medical science. az
/ cgrdinE 10 Ut. Anderson. who declares
] that bactcriCIoEisJs have been baaled
/ tins far despite searching iayesJiEa- -ious
I and exBer ments.
I Authorities ia many cities and q few
States already have recognized the dis
/ ease as infectious. while many contend
/ that Il is contagious maIady, but can
not be quarantined in the District Of
[ Columbia
REGARDING the threatening danger OF
I this condition, Dr. Anderson, indOrsed
7 BY Health Onicer Woodward. OF rhe
{ District urges
Physicians and parents should CX-
Tgr- : q
/ tfon in isOlatiuE infants afflicted WITH
! the disease and disiEfecUHg tie prem
fSes thoroughly when the disease is
abated. The Health Dep&l li-eliL
/ should also be promptly notified even
/ when "a case IS suspected as i D
{ essential that the authorities should
/ b. In possession OF all Facts p ine
1 epidemic IS 20 be stamped out In the
Z It viii require in my opinion. an
act OF Congress- 10 establish guar4il-
/ line in cases Of infantfle paralysis
/ but IN the meantime persons anu
I physicians can bring about the de-
I sired erect by exercising the proper
care
/ To Conduct Probe
I Investigation Of the disease viii be
undertaken by Or Anderson and his
assistants Immediately on the return
of Dr. W r. Frost. . member Of the
staff. who at present Is IN Mason City,
L Iowa ADVISING LIt ADfd -LdtE L1tate- va
Health in regard 10 an epidemic Of the
same maIady The disease spread so
rapidly and the ravaEes became 50
{ disastrous that the Iowa board invoked
[ the aid Of the Public Health and Ma
rfue Hospital Service, and Dr- Frost
was detailed 10 make an inyestigatlon-
II is believed by Dr. Anderson that
DR. Frost viii CLEAN much valuable IN
/ formation in his investigation that VIII
be Of use in the Government proDe-
Ravages Of Disease
Referring 70 the ravases Of the disease
Dr. Anderson said
The appalling list Of deaths OF in
fants il not the most distressing
feature Of the disease. as thousands
r1Don thousands Of children are per
manently crippled or defOrmed, the
disease not necessarily being a fataI
one II IS seldom that the disease at
rackS a child older than i've years.
but there are cases where ever adults
have been victims Of the q .imenL
In my O2iniou. the disease Is bctn
infectious and contagious. certainly
infectious. as has been demonstrated
by experiments. II has been shown
that monkeys inOCUlated with the
brain OF spinal cord OF infants who
have died Of the disease have been
able TO transmit the disease 10 other
monkeys, the affecting agent being
Continued on Second Psge.)