The Elbert County tribune., 1916-07-28

lnlant1le paralysis is the result or an
attack by an organism or minute para
site on the contents of the spinal cord.
into which it makes its way. The
spinal cord becomes filed with blood
and the sensory and motor cells, as
they are called, become disorganized
and broken. A healthy baby may be
turned into cripple over night by the
disease, which for long time baffied
the most expert skill in therapeutics.
DIR. Simon Flexner. 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, infantile paralysis
seems ito pick the strong and well
children in preference TO the weak.
Vigorous health seems to be no pro-
lection 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; 1t
may and not infrequently does affect
adults and no age is absolutely free OF
danger of Infection"
Doctor Flexner appeared before n
meeting of physicians in Brooklyn and
explained to them how the disease
could be contracted.
"The virus of infantile paralysis ex-
lists 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
and throat from one person who may
be infected to other persons.
Since the disease attacks by prefer
ence 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
infantile paralysis in the homes of ven
dors of food is, therefore, a perpetual
source of danger. Dissemination can
be made by means 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 III
and of all vendors of food, exclusion
Of oil
troll of the personnel and habitations of
families In which the disease exists.
mo age ID absolutely free of danger
of infection. although infantile paraly-
sis affects chiefly young persons. 1t
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 well"
Reports of clinical cases indicate
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 coutagion in respect to cpl
denic polomyelitis is rot a new one. but
appeared in the literature of more than a
quarter of a century ago. and of late has
been frequently invoked The clinical
course OF the disease indicated an infec-
tious origin. but up to very recent times no
convincing knowledge concerning the ma
ture of the agent causing infantile para.
lysis existed. The epidemic of 1907 in this
country, in France and in Germany led to
a renewed study of the nature of the in
fection. In the course of which the more
subtle ard recent methods of bacteriology
were employed
Thes. methods led almost simultaneous
ly, in the United States. by Doctor Lewis
and myself. and in France by Landstein-
and Levaditi, to the discovery that the
infectious agent was an extremely minute
micro-orgnnism that readily passed
through the pores . sarthenware 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 fllterable
nature OF the virus has now been con-
firmed 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 discov-
cry OF the nature OF the virus actually
aepends. 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 in
fantile paralysis could be transmitted
from one patient to another. The dl-
sease, moreover, is caused by most
minute organism or germ. as the popu-
lnr rlhrns &c hns cnme To he