The Coolidge examiner., 1935-07-19

Vffs All over
yhc country gave It their front
page. headline attention People
hesitatcd 10 20 through 81 Louis
and automobiles charted their route
around the plague" city when com
luE 10 the Century 81 Progress In
Chicago. And exposition officials
had 90 broadcast that there was
no sleeping sickness In Chicago.
and. even then. people would not
believe them.
There are two kinds OF sleeping
sickness-the older kind that had
more than 80 per cent mortality and
that left the survivors almost
worse than dead In that they were
physically helpless and mentally
without much reasoning power. and
then the new kind. known as cpl
demic eucephalItis. which has
loss mortality rate and In which the
recovery of the survivors Is com.
plete with no detrimental after ef-
fects II was this second kind that
81 Louis had.
The first kind came apparently as
an aftermath Of the great world in
fuenza epidemic Of i9ls-io. although
/; is believed 70 have made a few
minor appearances earlier. This kind
Is called eneephalitis lethargica.
The new kind. the mllder sort.
called epidemic encephalliis, made
Us 6rst known appearance In ia
pan In the nineteen twentles. Then
it was not heard of again until II
broke ont IN Paris. H., In 1892 (:
and IN the following year Il cen.
tered itself spectacularly In So.
Louis with n number of cases re-
ported Ia neishborlng communities.
Encephalltis both kinds. belongs
70 The new brain and spinal diseases
which we call the Twentieth cen
fury diseases. Infantile paralysis
and spinal meningitis are also IN
this group They are most battling
diseases. and many scientists are
devo,ing all their time trying 10
discover the cause and the cure OF
them.
The causatlye agent OF infantile
paralysis Is some invisible germ.
and We have reason 20 believe that
The virus Of infantile paralysis may
be widespread on the membrane OF
the throat and nose Of everyone
during the summer months. when
The Incidence of this disease Is
/ greatest; nevertheless. very few
people have the disease In It's char
IacterIstic form The particular
susceptibility of the individual
seems TO be the determining factor
In lnfaniile paralysis.
We have learned a few things.
but not many. about Infantile pa
ralysls In the last - years. But in
the case Of epidemic encephalItIs we
have made considerable progress
IN the time since II first appeared
In this country In Paris III. For a
while We did not know what AMI
NAL could take IL, but now sci
entists have found that they can
give this disease 20 the mouse by
Injecting some OF the emulsion OF
the brain Of human case Into the
brain Of a mouse. Scientists rejoice
at this discovery. for now a great
many research workers can be using
their detective powers TO try 10
ind out how people can develop re-
sistance against this new disease
or how they can be made immune
10 r.
II Is strange that now that sci
ence has practically conquered the
high death rate that used 10 follow
dlphtheria. measles, typhoid, scar
let fever and other communicable
diseases. we have this new kind Of
communicable diseases on which
history cannot give US any light. We
have learned that many persons
have had infantile paralysis In so
mild a form that they didn't know
they had anything unusual the mat
ter with them: still they developed
antlbodies so they are now immune.
According to the mouse testing
method in encephalitis, it seems that
some people are immune to sleeping
sickness. They may also have had
il in so mild form that they like
wise did not know they had had any
thing more serious than cold.
No one has yet been able to dis
cover the virus that causes the COM
mon cold. We know 1t Is there, but
IL Is so Infnitesimally small that II
goes through every bacteria filter
we have. II may be that when we
can Isolate this virus, we may have
the key that will unlock the mys-
terry of all these new nervous sys-
TEN diseases.
Meanwhile, since we don't know
the causes Of sleeping sickness. ii
is best to play safe by isolating a
person who has 1t from contact with
anyone except his caretakers. In
our experience with 1t so far. It
has never struck twice In the same
household.
G western Newspaper Union