The Washington times., 1917-04-01
SERUM TO COMBAT
PARALYSIS ISFOUND
Rockefeller Institute Experts
Report on Study of
PoIiomyeIitis.

NEW YORK, April IA series OF
which are embodied the results OF
the special studies in poliomyelitis
made by members of the Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research dur
ing the last fall and winter, form an
! important contribution to the April
number OF the Journal OF Expert
mental Medicine, which is published
by the institute and will appear to-
morrow.
One learns early in glancing
through the series that the microbe
cause of the disease enters the sys-
tenn by way of the mucous mem
brane of the throat and nose: also,
that it has been demonstrated that
many more persons are exposed 10
the disease and become contaminated
with it than develop the disease or
convey the virus to others who may
develop it. 1t is obvious, therefore,
as the experimenters point out, that
the body contains natural defenses
against the virus. During the cpl
demic of last summer only 1.59 per
sons out of every 200 in the create
city suffered from poliomyelitis in
any form.
Defenses External and Internal
To DR.. Amoss. of the Rockefeller In
stitute. and DR.. Taylor, of the State
board of health of Vermont, belongs
the credit of discovering that the first
set of defensive means resides in the
secretions of the nose. The power
of these secretions. however, TO de-
stroy the active virus is not abso-
lutte, it is pointed out, but may be
affected by the state of the MEM
brane, normal or otherwise, or by in
dividual pecularities so far uneX-
planned. The neutralizing power of
the nasal secretions is the rule rather
than the exception.
Not only are there these external
defenses against the disease, bu. the
experiments also have detected a set
OF internal defenses, which include in
tact membranes around the spinal
cord and the brain, and also the brain
structure known as the choroid
plexus, the function of which is to
drain OF fluid from the blood, which
forms the normal cerebrospinal liquid
which surrounds these organs.
Obcu hOuAcyb IN hXpeTimentN
By experimenting upon monkeys
DR.. Flexner and DR.. Amoss have
shown that by increasing artificially
the permeability of the monkeys
membranes the healing substances
pass easily into the fluid within the
membranes, this fluid being the most
direct route to the interior of the
spinal cord and brain. During earlier
experiments with monkeys DR.. Flex-
ner and DIR. Lewis demonstrated as
early as 1910 that monkeys inoculated
with poliomyelitis virus often would
not develop the disease IL by means
of a procedure known as the lumbar
puncture the blood of other monkeys
that had recovered from the disease
was injected into the membranes sur
rounding the spinal cord
Attention Is called in the series of
papers that will appear tomorrow to
the exceptional opportunity to use
the serum treatment under favorable
OF environment in this city
last summer. owing to the great Sc
verify and widespread prevalence of
the disease. A better understanding
of the problem of administration also
obtained during the recent epidemic
The results obtained by Dr. Amoss
and DIR. Chesney Of the, Rockefeller
Institute in the serum treatments they
last summer at the West
chester Isolation Hospital, which was
built during the epidemic, are embod-
led in the series of papers.