The Monticellonian., 1916-08-03
INFANTILE PARALYSIS HAS LONG
 BEEN 4 PUZZLE TO SCIENTISTS
Disease Which Has Collected Awful Toll of Children Caused by Minute Organism That Attacks the Spinal Cord and May Turn Healthy Baby Into Cripple Over Nlght-PiCkS Strong and Well Children in Preference to
 the Weak.

New York.-The condition known ns infantle paralysis is the result of an attack by an organism or minute para site on the contents of the spinal cord, into which il makes its way. The spinal cord becomes filled with blood and the seuSory and motor cells, as they are called, become disorganized and broken. A healthy baby maH be turned into cripple over night by the disease, which for long time bHtiied the most expert skill in therapeutics.
 Dr. Simon Flcxner. head of the Rockefeller institute, and the man whose discoveries in connection with the disease have given him an inter national reputation. declares, reports the New York Times, that, according to all records, infantilc paralysis seems ito pick the strong and well children i'll preference to the weak. Vigorous health seems to be no pro- teetion against the disease"
 The infectious agent enters the body chiefly, if not exclusively. through the mucous membranes of the nose and throat" he says "Poliomyelitis. or infantile paralysis, affects chiefly, but not exclusively, young persons; IL may and not infrequcntly does affect adults and no age is absolutely free of danger of infection.'
 Doctor Flexncr appeared before Il meeting of physicians in Brooklyn and explained to them how the disease could be contracted.
 The virus of infautile paralysis eX- ists in the secretions of the nose and throat and In the intestineS, he said. Hence the mode of spread may be by kissing, coughing, and sneezing, which carry the secretions of the nose nnd throat from one person who may be infected 10 other persons.
 since the disease attacks by prefer enee young children and infants whose nasal and mouth secretionS are wiped away by mother or nurse. the fingers of these persons readily become con taminated. The care of other children by persons with contaminated fingers may, therefore, lead to the conveying of the infectious micro-Organism indi. rectly from the sick to the healthy. This danger also exists in connection with vendors of food which is eaten uncooked. The existence of cases of infhntile paralysis in the homes of ven dors of food is. therefore a perpetual source of danger. Dissemination can be made by mems of house flies.
 As to Treatment
 "Treatment involves isolation of the acutely i'll, proper care and destruction of contaminated discharges. supervi- sion of persons in contact with the ii and Of all vendors of food. exclusion of all flies, and general sanitary con trol of the personnel and habitations Of families in which the disease exists
 No age is absolutely free of danger Of infection, although infantile paraly- sis affects chiefly young persons. II not infrequently affects adults. More over, as indicated, the disease is one that can be communicated by healthy persons who have been in contact with the sick, but who are themselves we'll"
 
 that the onset of the disease is likely to be insidious. Parents paying little heed to slight spasms in their children are in due time shocked by the slow whitening of limbs and the beginning of state which in many instances is in distinguishable from physical helpless ness. Then, when 1t is too late. the question of contagion is raised. On this last point, Doctor Flexner has written:
 Of Infectious Origin.
 The idea of eontagion in respect to epi- demic poltomyelitis is Tot a new one but appeared in the literature of more than n quarter of century ago. and of late has been frequently invoked The clinical course of the disease indicated an infec- tous origin. but up to very recent times no convincing knowledge concerning the na- ture of the agent causing infantile para lyss existed. The epidemic of 1907 in this country, in France and in Germany led to renewed study of the nature of the in lection in the course of which the more subtle and recent methods of bacteriology were employed
 These methods led almost simultaneous ly, in the United States. by Doctor Lewis and myself. and in France by Landstein- CT and Levadti, to the discovery that the Infectious agent was an extremely minute miero-organism that readily passed through the pores of earthenware filters and constituted. therefore, an example of the so-called filterable viruses, of which at the present time several examples are known to cause infectious diseases in man and the lower animals. The filterable nature of the virus has now been con frmed wherever the subject has been ac. curately investigated On acquisition of the fact of the nature of this virus. and of the further fact. on which the disC0V= cry of the nature of the virus actually depends, that both the higher and lower monkeys are subject to the experimental disease. rest the recent great advances which have been made in the investigation of infantile paralysis.
 Proved by Experiments
 Experiments with monkeys conduct. ed with extreme care proved that n- fantile paralysis could be transmitted from one patient 10 another. The di- sease, moreover, is caused by most minute organism or germ, as the popu. lar phrase has come to be-
 Tt is, so far as we can now judge. one of the most minute organisms known to cause disease" says Doctor Flexner This conclusion follows from the fact that in aqueous suspen- sion. such as is secured through pre- pairing an emulsion Sf the spinal cord in distilled water, it passes with great readiness and little or no loss of po- tency through the pores of the densest and finest porcelain filters. namely.