The Monticellonian., 1916-08-03

1 cultivated outside of the body is stfi an undecided question.
 The spinal cord of a paraIyzed monkey always contains the virus we are eonsid- | ering. If a camel's hair pencil or pedget i of cotton is covered with some 9f the l broken up tissue of such cord and ] painted upon the mucous membrane of l monkeys these animals will develop in due | time the paralysis and other symptoms | Of poliomyeitis
 l The chef terror of the disc7aa lies in | It's appalling power to produce dcformfties. | When death does occur 1t is not tine re- l suit. as in many infections, Of q process l of poisoning that rohs the padent of ! strength ard consciousness before tts I'm mjneuce. but is caused solely by paralysis l uf the respiratory function. sometimes l with merciful suddeuness, but often with | painful 4leWHpss without in any degree | ubscuriug the consciousness of the suffo- 1 eating victim Hhtl Just before the end is l reached No more terrible tragedy can | bc witnessed
 | The employment for treatment of the | immune serum taken from monkeys or | from human beings. exercises a definite f | not very strong protective action upon tu- | oculated monkeys Either the disease is prevented altogether. or it's svoluHon is | modified in such manner as to diminish 1 its severity. When the virus used for in- | ocula ion Is highly adapted to the monkey
 
 | to control the result than when 1t departs less from the original type and Is less ae- tive.
 How It Acts.
 The immune serum has thus far acted ! best when it was infected Into the sub ! dural space on several successive days. | Thls is Tn conformity with the fact that | however introduced into the heau the virus establishes Itself Tn communication
 with the cerebrosptnal liquid where it ! propagates for H time. Later the virus | loealizes in the nervous tissue itself and 1 becomes accessible not from thls liqud ! only but probably. from the general blood | also
 The serum introduced into the subdurai | space soon escapes into the b100d and | thus double action is secured on tho l one hand it reaches the nervous tissue di- | reCtly from tine ceFebrosptnal liquid. nd | on the other indirectly with the blood. An | immune horse serum at first gave disap- 1 pointing results. but iatterly Is employ l ment by tutramuscuiar injection has given | more promise
 | The point of departure which we have ] adopted k the drug hexamethyleuamin | urotroI 'an which possesses q degree of 1 antlseptlc action in the hndY and Is known | to be seereted into the cerehrospinal | liquid When the drug ks admlustrated by mouth it can he detected by chemical 1 tests in the liquid in short time When tnaeulation of eiras and administration l of the drug aTE heEIa together and the | administration continued for some days | aftcrward the development of the para | lyss is sometimes haE mel always aperted. | HcNamethYlenamtn lends itself tn modi- | hcationa hy the addition af still other | aHtisehtie groups tn its mdittuie. We nave | tested a large number of such moditiea- l tons and have found certain ones 10 ex- l Ceed the original compound h protective | power. and others te promote the onset
 Faf H4HffH
 degree of injurious action upon The sen 1 sitive and vital organs of the body. But | manipulative skill has already succeeded 1 in eliminating the objectionable and im- l proving the valuable features of certain | drugs so that they exert action but little | upon the organs and severely upon the
 parasite. when they become useful thera- | peutic agents
 Power May Return.
 In the less severe eases of infantile
 paralysis only il group of muscles uli- dergo complete paralysis and atrophy, and there k always hope Of some re-
 turn of power in paralyzed limb As sociated with the withered condition Of the limb due to the muscular atrophy Is an enfeehied circulation. rendering | the limb cold. blue and liYid: the nu- triton of the bones and other parts ls involved, so that Il limb paralyzed in early infancy does not grow and is shorter than its fellow.
 In Scandinavian countries the di- sease is prevalent and sometimes as- sumes an epidemic form. whereby one
 Is led to believe that II Is due to an infectiye organism.
 Beginning in 1907, or thereabout. a l pandemie of the disease arose. The
 United States, Austria Germany. and | latterly France have certainly had epi- | demie outbreaks. + Is considered matter of significance that the original | foci of the epidemic disease In, the | United States, occurring in the summer nine years ago, were among the Att | lantic seaboard states, and that the
 two centers of population most seri- ously affected were Grenter New York and Boston. The particular point of l importance in this respect arises from l the fact that those two centers of pop
 ulation receive first and In most con
 centrated way the immigrant popula-
 tions from northern and eastern Eu-
 rope.