The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-12
FLY DOES IT ALL.
Little House Pest Blamed for Spread
of Infantile Paralysis.

DIR. S. J. Crunbine, secretary of the
state board of health, was encouraged
today in his campaign against the fly
by a communication from DIR. Simon
Flexner of the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research, in which that emil
nent authority declares that the com
mon housefly is probably responsible
for the spread of the dread disease, in
fantile paralysis. DR.. F1exner has
proven experimentally that flies con-
taminated with this virus are capable
of producing the disease
"A case of fnfantile PARALYSIS, the
first this year from Kansas, has been
reported to the board of health from
Greenwood county.
That Fart of the DIR. Flexner letter
relating to experiments conducted with
flies in relation to infantiIa paralysis
contagion is as follows:
THE flies employed by us have been
laboratory bred. Fsull-grown flies
have been permitted to feed upon the
fresh spinal cord removed from mon
keys inoculated with the virus of po-
iomyelitis and recently paralyzed.
After feeding, the flies have been
placed in a fresh receptacle from
which certain numbers were removed
at intervals, killed with ether, then
comminuted with sand and extracted
with saline solution, from which a
bacteria-free filtrate was prepared by
means of a Berkerfeld filter. The fill
trate was injected in the usual man
ner into the BRAIN of rhesus monkeys.
Brief protocols of two experiments
follow y
ga Macacus rhesus monkey was
inoculated intracerebrally on May 2
with c. C. of a filtrate prepared from
lived in clean surroundings for "a
hours after having fed upon portions
of the spinal cord obtained from a re-
Gently paralyzed (polfomyelitic) mon
key. After recovery from the ether
anaesthesia, the monkey remained
well until May s, when it appeared
somewhat weak. a.
'On May 8, it presented the COM
mon prodromal symptoms of excess
sive nervousness and excitability, and
the left arm showed paralysis. During
the day the paralysis extended and
affected the right arm; on May 10,
the legs were also paralyzed; the ami
NAL was then etherized. The autopsy
showed in the spinal cord the char
acteristic microscopic LESSONS of cx-
perimental peliomye1itis, and micro
scopic sections presented the typical
LESSONS of that disease.
Another Macacus rhesus monkey
was inoculated intracerebralIy on
May g, with filtrate prepared from
the bodies of ten flies, which had fed
IS hours before upon the spinal cord
obtained from paraiyzed monkey.
After recovering from the ether anaes-
theSia, this animal remained well un-
til May 13. By May IA, paralysis of
all four extremities had developed and
the animal was etherized. The au-
topsy showed characteristic LESSONS of
experimental poliomyelitis in the spi-
nal cord, and the sections, typical his
tological LESSONS.
THE experiments recorded merely
show that flies contaminated with the
virus of poliomyelitis harbor the virus
in living and infectious state for at
ieast AZ hours. They do not show tha1
this is the limit of the period of sur
Vfval, and they throw no light on the
question whether the virus is retained
merely as a superficial contamination
or whether it can survive in the gas
tro-1ntestinal tract. Experiments re-
lat1ng to these points are in progress. -