The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-12-02
Investigators of Mayo Clinic
Make One of Most lmpor.
tant Discoveries of the Age
EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS
SEEMS CONVINCING
Strong Hopes Entertained Sc
rum Will Be Developed
That Will Conquer Disease
Before Another Season

Rochester, Mimi, Dec. In the
laboratories Of the famous Mayo
Clinic here, a certain micro-organism
has been discovered which 10 believed
by investigators on the depart
ment Of pathology to be the causative
dread disease which last summer
killed or crippled nearly 10000
American babies.
With customary scientific reserve.
DR.. E. c. Rosenow, who La In charge
of the experiments will not yet assert
positively that the germ which he and
his associates, DR.. e. Towne, of Bos-
ton. and DR.. g. w. Wheeler, of New
York, have succeeded In iRolating IL
the germ of infantile paralysis. but in
what he terms q preliminary note
that has been presented to the State
Medical Society 1t IL shown that in
Vulnerable experiments during the
past few months all point in this di-
rection.
II 1t be true that the agent Of the
disease has thus been found and
Northumberland there is no real doubt
in the minds OF the scientists &C
quainted with the experiments that
this has been done--then half Of one
OF the greatest battles In modern
medicine has already been won. There
remains, of course. the important
task OF developing a serum or a vac
cine or perhaps both. with which
immunity may be established in hu-
man beings, but once the germ has
been tagged this at once becomes pos
Isibie. 1t is entirely within the range
OF probability that before another
summer comes the world may hear
that fnfantiie paralysis has been de-
finitely re!egated to the category OF
such diseases as diphtheria smallpox
and other readily controlled afYlictions
With the memory of last summer
horror still fresh in the public mind
no more important piece Of news
could be presented to Americans.
4 Evidence Of Success.
incubation of rabbits. dogs and
| monkeys with the germ taken from
human beings has been followed in
called characteristic poliomyelitis, or
tnfantile paralysis. The symptoms
produced in the animals are in every
respect the same as those witnessed
in human beings Cultures made from
dogs and rabbits dead of the disease
when injected into other dogs and
rabbits have produced instant and
! fatal attacks of fnfantiie PARALYSIS.
Indeed, there is apparently no miss
ing link in the chain between the
fine. dry. non-adherent. slightly
green" colonies of streptccoci OBJ
served under the microscope and the
onset of the disease In animals after
1t Is injected either in the basins or
spinal cord. Furthermore-and this
fact will appear to the layman to be
especially convincing--it has been
noted by the investigators that young
animals were always found more sus-
ceptible to the germ than older ones,
Just as children more frequently catch
the disease than grown people. The
investigators report, however, that
older animals were by no means i'm
mune from 1t.
/ Summing up the results OF their
labors. the three doctors say:
We have isolated a peculiar strep-
tococus from threats, tons.ls, alb
scesses In tonsils and from the CEN
trail nervous system In cases Of
poliomyelitis. Paralysis has been pro-
duced In animals OF various species
by intravenous and iptracerebral in
lection Of cultures of this organism
and LESSONS of the gray matter of their
nervous system have been demon.
strated. From the nervous system
OF these animals the streptocccus has
been isolated In pure culture, while
their other tissues were sterile 1t In re-
markedly polypremous and appears
to grow large or small according 10
the medium IN which It 10 crown.
even altar passage through Berkefeld
litter