The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1946-11-28
Polio Called
Jekyll-EEyde
Foe of Man
BY EFFIE ALLEY,
Noted Woman Journalist

ySlS QOuDtl2SS Will be known as the
disease with the double nature, the
DR.. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the
medical world.
First described in 1910, it man
aged for nearly a century to show
the generations of hardWorking doc
tors and research men who studied
1t, only one side of its personality.
1t posed-and posed successfully
as a disease which worked on the
spinal cord and on that alone.
AS such, it was invulnerable. 1t
could not be attacked. No real treat
ment was possible
And none would be possible today
had not the keen eyes of Sister
Elizabeth Kenny, intrepid Austria
han nurse, surprised this killer and
crlppler in another guise.
Found at Work
She discovered it at Work-not in
the spinal cord, where it was mac
cesslble-but in the muscles, where
1t could be fought and routed.
This in essence is the whole diff
ference between the old, orthodox
idea of polio and the newer, hope
full concept Of Sister Elizabeth
Kenny.
Medical scientists studying the
disease in the usual way, by micro
scoplc examination of dead tissue,
saw dlS1ntcgrated motor nerve cells
and diagnosed paralysis.
Sister Kenny, the woman and the
nurse who worked with living, suf-
fering patients, quite naturally saw
something else. She saw tender,
painful, knottad muscles and dag
nosed muscle spasm.
Both, of course, were right, for
infantiie paralysis is the disease
with a double identity.
The only trouble was that most
doctors, knowing so we'll what took
place IN the spine, believed that
everything took place there Not
knowing that the muscles were sick
IN and of themselves, they failed to
treat them in the acute stage and
hence got great deal more
paralysis among their patients than
there was any need for.
Prove Theory
1t has since been confirmed by
many inquiries attested by the Ma
tional Foundation for Infantile
Paralysis that true paralysis occurs
at the maximum in only about 20
per cent of the badly affected cases.
All the rcSt-pseudo-paralysiS, de-
formity, muscle WeakneSs-is due
to muscle SpaSm
Doctors were amazed at this idea
and yet, seeing Sister Kenny re-
store function to muscles they had
been sure were paralyzed, many
li~Y
nurse had something" Bearing
witness to this, DR.. Alfred Deacon
Of Canada, said
we were astOunded to see Miss
Kenny restore what we had record
ed as completely paralyzed and
faced muscles to full function"
The significance of Sister Kenny'S
work has been attested by the many
honorary degrees bestowed on her
by Institutions Of learning.
The University of Rochester, by
means of delicate electrical instru-
ments proved in the laboratory
that muscle spasm does exist and
that nerve impulses continue to
reach muscles which are apparent
ly paralyz2d
AS a result, the University con-
ferrcd on Sister Kenny the degree
of Doctor of Science Other hOnors
followed, New York University Civ
ing her the degree of Doctor of
Humane Letters and Rutgers Uni
versity, similar honor. More than
20 scientific and medical societies
have singled her out for special dis
tinCtiOn.
Practical Aid
The great value of her discovery
of muscle spasm is in its practi-
cality. 1t gives a basis for treat
ment 1t points out the spot where
the greatest crippler of all time can
be reached.
But more than this, it shows how
the old treatment based on the old
concept of polio as merely a disease
of the spine, had encouraged Grip
ping and deformity. For Sister
Kenny and others have proved that
if muscle spasm is not relieved it
will persist for years, shortening
and hardening muscle fibers per-
manently, drawing them up until
eventually they distort the skeleton
itself and deny movement even to
the joints
Doctors had known with what
tragic regularity such things as this
occurred as the aftermath of polio.
They tried to prevent it by splint-
ing, and when that failed, they tried
to correct the deformities by sur
gerry. But it was not until Sister
Kenny came along with her con-
ccpt of muscle spasm that they
realized these shortened and con-
tracted muscles were sick and need
ing treatment.
Unhealthy Muscles
She has demonstrated that mus
cles which all medical science had
considered strong and healthy
were, in reality, very sick. Muscles
which had been thought paralyzed
were, in fact, normal.
Thus sick muscles had been neg
lected and Woefully mishandled,
forced INTO rigid casts where their
spasm could only increase until it
caused fixed deformities.
Normal muscles had been mis-
takenly treated as paralyzed and
in the process often rendered so.
For these apparently paralyzcd
muscles are usually opposite TO
muscles in spasm and do not regain
their function until spasm has been
relieved. Through the Old treatment
of splinting, they were forced into
inaction until pseudoparalysis be-
came real, merely through atrophy
and diSuSe.