Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-09-15

|oEznx. II Gamer nnir pcncI pIo{lIet'
Of cotton IL covered with some Of the
broken. up tissue Of such = cord and
painted upon the mucous membrane of
time the paralysis and other symptoms
Of poIlomyelitis.
The chief terror OF the disease lies In
IT. appalling power to produce def0rmitiee.
When death does occur Il 10 not the re-
suit, as in many infections. Of a process
Of poisoning that robs the patient OF
minence. but IL caused solely by paralysis
Of the respiratory function. sometimes
with mercifui suddenness. but often VIM
painful sIowness, without In any degree
obscuping the consciousness Of the SUMO
eating victim until just before the end II
reached. No more terrible tragedy can
be witnessed.
The employment for treatment Of the
immune serum. taken from monkeys or
from human beings. exercises . definite II
not very strong protective action upon in
oculated monkeys. Either the disease n
prevented altogether, or its evolution IL
modified In such a manner as - diminish
It's severity. When the virus I led for In
oculation Is highly adapted to the monkey
and thus very virulent. II II more dificult
to control the result than when It departs
less from the original type and IL less &C.
tive.
How u Acts.
The immune serum has thus far acted
best when II was injected into the cub
dural space on several successive days.
This Is In conformity with the fact that
however introduced into the body the
virus establishes itself In communication
with the cerebrospinal liquid where Il
propagates for a time. Later the virus
localixes 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 It reaches the nervous tissue d.
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 we have
adopted Is the drug ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
(urotrop.n) which possesses a degree OF
antiseptic action in the body and Is known
to be secreted into the cerebrospinal
liquid When the drug b administrated
by mouth 1t can be detected by chemical
tests in the liquid in a short time. When
incubation Of virus and administration
Of the drug are begun together and the
afterward. the development Of the para
lysis is sometimes but not always averted.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lends itself to modi-
fcations by the addition of still other
antfseptic groups to its molecule. We have
tested a large number OF such modfca-
tons and have found certain ones to ex-
coed 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 inn
proving the valuable features Of certain
drugs so that they exert action but little
upon the organs and severely upon the
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
ISOLATED 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 il
involved. so that limb paralyzed In
early infancy does not grow and Ii
shorter than its fellow.
In Scandinavian countries the d.
sease Is prevalent and sometimes as
sumes an epidemic form, whereby ons
Is led to believe that II Is due to an
infective organism.
Beginning In 1907. or thereabout. u
pandemic Of the disease arose. The
United States. Austria. Germany. and
latterly France have certainly had cpl
demic outbreaks. 1t is considered a
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 seri-
ously affected were Greater New York
and Boston. The particular point of
Importance in this respect arises from
the fact that those two centers of pop
ulation receive first and In most con-
centrated way the immigrant popula-
tons from northern and eastern Eu-