Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-07-22


Proteln and cells to pass through from the
blood into the cerebro-spinal fluid.
me virus passes with great difficulty
from the blood into the nervous organs nn1.:.
the choriod plexus and meninges had nra.
.s1ously been injured, say through setting mn
an aseptic inflammation by injecting steril.
morse serum into the meninges by means of
LUMBAR puncture. Present studies have
brought out extraordinary constituencies of
those structures to the injurious action Of
otherwise bland fluids for not only is their
permeablhty affected by irritants such as
morse and even normal monkey serum, both Of
which produce visible signs of inflammation
out also Of sterile physiological salt, Ringer g
or Locke S solutions, which set up only evan
escent lnfiammatory changes, and Of the cere-
oro-splnal fluids from other monkeys which
produce no detachable infammatory changes
whatever wi! The injury produced by the last
merely molecular.
Possibly poliomyelitis arises during tho
presence Of the malady when both sets of de-
fenslve measures fail. This probably would
occur only in exceptional instances in indi-
v1dals among the populations of any size. II
Is Tor the moment not difficult to conceive of
reasons to account for the failure of the ex
ternal mechanism, and more difficult to &C.
count for the failure Of the internal mechan-
"
lzlng power Of the nasal secretions tends to
reduce the carriage Of the virus upon the
nasal mucosa of persons exposed to and hav-
Ing suffered from infection with the virus of
pollomyelitls. 1t becomes, therefore, an essen
tlal agency in diminishing public danger
through reduction in the number of potential
virus carriers which arise.
There is one irritating fluid only so far
detected which does not promote infection
when injected into the cerebro- spinal men
lnges. This fluid is an immune serum oh
tanned from monkeys or human beings pre-.
viously recovered from poliomyelitis. The
immune serum carries neutralizing principles
which inactivate the virus as it passes from
the blood into the cerebro-spinal fluid"
The experiments of DR.. Harold l.. Amoss
and DR.. Edward Taylor, of the Research
Laboratory, Vermont State Board of Health.
Burlington, Vt, referred to by Dr. Flexner,
are described by them in the journal of Ex-
perimental Medicine as follows:
THE occurrence of the infectious micro
organism of poliomyelitis- the virus so-called
in the mucous membranes of the naso-
pharnyx and in their secretions, is now firmly
established by Flexner, Lewis, Landsteiner,
Levadaditi and Pasta. Not only may the
virus be demonstrated by incubation tests
during the acute period Of the disease, but it
is known to persist there in some cases for
many months after the convalescence, and,
conversely, it has been detected in certain in
stances in washings from the nasopharnyx Of
healthy persons who have been in intimate
contact with the acutely i'll.
Finally the fact has been determined by
experiment that when the virus has been in
troduced directly into the central nervous
tissues wherein it multiplies, it also appears
in the mucous membranes Of the nose and
throat These facts indicate that the naso-
pharyngeal mucous membranes play an i'm
portant part in the pathology Of epidemic
ri~h<