The Elbert County tribune., 1916-07-28

cultivated outside of the body is still an
undecided question
The spinal cord Of a paraiyzed monkey
always contains the virus we are consid-
ering. II camefs hair pencil or pledget
of cotton is covered with some of the
broken up tissue of such a cord and
painted upon the mucous membrane of
monkeys these animals win develop in due
time the paralysis and other symptoms
of poliomyeltis.
The chief terror of the disease lies in
its appalling power to produce deformities.
When death does occur II is not the
suit. as in many infections. of a process
of poisoning that robs the patient of
strength ard consciousness before It's i'm
minence. but is caused solely by paralysis
OF the respiratory function, sometimes
with merciful suddenness. but often with
painful slowness. without in any degree
obscuring the consciousness of the suffo-
eating victim until just before the end Is
reached No more terrible tragedy can
be witnessed.
immune serum, taken from monkeys
| from human beings. exercises a definite II
| not very strong protective action upon in
oculated monkeys. Either the disease IL
| prevented altogether, or its evolution is
modified in such manner as to diminish
| its severity. When the virus used for in
oculation is highly adapted to the monkey
| and thus very virulent. II is more difficult
to control the result than when 1t departs
less from the original type and Is less
| tive.
How II Acts.
The immune serum has thus far acted
| best when It was Injected into the sub
| dural space on several successive days
| This is in conformity with the fact that
however introduced Into the body the
| virus establishes itself in cominunicat
with the cerebrospinal liquid where It
propagates for a time. Later the virus
| localizes in the nervous tissue itself and
/ becomes accessible not from this liquid
only but. probably from the general blood
| also.
The serum introduced into the subdural
| space soon escapes into the blood: and
| thus double action is secured: on the
one hand II reaches the nervous tissue di-
rectly from the cerebrospinal liquid. and
| on the other Indirectly with the blood An
| immune horse serum at first gave disap-
pointing results, but latterly its employ
| ment by intramuscular injection has given
more promise.
The point of departure which have
| adopted is the drug hexaInethylenamin.
| turotropin.) which possesses u degree OF
| antiseptic action in the body and is known
| to be secreted into the cerebrospinal
| liquid When the drug is administrated
| by mouth It can be detected by chemical
tests in the liquid in short time. When
| incubation OF virus and administration
/ of the drug are begun together and the
administration continued for some days
afterward. the development of the para
| lysis is sometimes but not always averted
| Hexamethylenamin lends itself to modi-
| hcations by the addition of still other
| antiseptic groups to its molecule. We have
| tested la:ge number OF such modfica-
| tions and have found certain ones to ex-
| ceed the original compound in protective
| power. and others to promote the onset
| OF paralysis. None is wholly without some
| degree OF Injurious action upon the sem
| sitive and vital organs of the body. But
| manipulative skill has already succeeded
| in eliminating the Objectionable and i'm
| 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 cases of infantile
paralysis only a group of muscles un-
dergo complete paralysis and atrophy,
and there is 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 enfeebled circulation, rendering
| the limb cold, blue and livid; the nu-
triton of the bones and other parts Is
involved, so that limb paralyzed in
|
shorter than its fellow.
In Scandinavian countries the di-
sense is prevalent and sometimes as
sumes an epidenil form. whereby one
is led to believe that 1t is due to an
| infective organism.
| Beginning in 1907. or thereabout. a
| pandemic of the disease arose. The
United States. Austria, Germany, and
latterly France have certainly had cpl
demic outbreaks. 1t is considered IL
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 At
lantic seaboard states. and that the
| two centers of population most serj-
| ously affected We're Greater New York
I and Boston. The particular point of
| Importance in this respect arises from
| the fact that those two centers of pop
uIation receive first and In most con-
centrated way the immigrant popula-
| tons from northern and eastern Eu-
| rope.