Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-11-15
BLAMEs RAW FOOD.

At the time this is written (Oct. 20)
the 1916 epidemic of infantile paralysis
is drawing to a close. The reports are
that the numbe of cases in New York
and New Jersey are declining very
rapidly. The number reported weekly
is no a tenth of the maximum num-
Der for one week when the disease was
at Its height. The situation in GER
tam parts of Massachusetts is not
wholly satisfactory, but elsewhere
throughout the country health officers
are Diminishing the 1916 epidemic from
their minds n are busy laying their
plans for protection of the public in
1917.
Last August Prof. selbert of New
York City made a suggestion which
The suggestion was that infantile
paralysis was contracted through eat
ing raw food, and especially raw fruit
contaminated by dust and flies.
1t will be recalled that Nathan Straus
issued a statement In September that
none of the more than 5000 cases of
infantile paralysis occurring in Brook
Ign and New York, many of them in
close proximity to his pasteurized milk
stations, been using Strauss pas
teurized milk. DIR. Price, health COM
missioner of Detroit, thinks the low
Detroit rate from infantile paralysis
is due to the fact that the Detroit milk
supply is practically 100 per cent pas
teurized.
Professor Seibert's argument is as
follows. AT least 60 per cent and prob
ably more, of infantile paralysis oc-.
ours in children under three years of
age. Children of this & do not mingle
much with other children. This is
against contact Infection. nfantile
paralysis does not increase when the
school year starts, as is the case with
scarlet fever and other diseases spread
nv contract All nnilnnNir GiCnncnS
spread through the nose secretions are
worse in the winter season. All cpl
demic diseases spread by food and flies
are worse in the summer and autumn.
~lnfantlle paralysis epidemics commonly
Begin IN the early summer. reach their
height in August or September, and
disappear practically by December l.
After November there are but "a few
scattered cases. Infantile paralysis
e~pidemics cause a great number OF
cases in AN infected neighborhood and
scattered cases around the periphery,
This is Just h o would expect of
a disease spread: by flies and raw food
The reason there is so much more in
fantiie paralysis in the United States
than in any country in continental Eu-
rope is that we eat more raw God than
is the. custom in Europe-mere unpas-
teurized and unboiled milk and moro
raw fruit.
The fact that scattering cases appear
from time to time and here and there
during the winter. but that these cases
cause no epidemics, he thinks. argues
that contact is not the method OF
spread, that nose secretiOns are not the
agency of SPREAD; but It's due to the
difficulty of spreading :.the disease. ir
the fiyless cooked food season-winter
He makes some siA1bl6 recommended
tons as to. how to keep from getting
infantile paralysis. First, allow no raw
fruit or vegetables to. come into the
house until December. Second, IL raw
foods are allowed to come into. the
house to have them boiled as follows:
Provide a large wash boiler. Bring
fruit and vegetables from the market
in "a cotton cloth market bag. At once
upon receiving a bag of vegetables.and
fruit submerge them in the boiler filled
with boiling water. Allow the water to
boil FOR one Minute. Apples, lettuce.
! celery are kept in this .boiler until
ready to go o the table.
All milk and water. are to be boiled.
All knives. forks and poems are to be
boiled. Ice cream sodas and candies
are not to be allowed until after De.
cember J.,