THE EPIDEMIC OF INFANTILE PARALYYSIS
The epidemic of infantile paralysis centering in Brooklyn has not attracted more attention than it deserves, although the 2,000 cases and 400 deaths which had occurred up to July 18 are not large in comparison with the waste of child life to which we submit. About 200,000 infants and about an equal number of children and young people die needlessly each year in this country. That the deaths are due to ignorance and neglect is evident from the fact that three times as many children die in Fall River and Patterson as in some other cities. It is quite possible that through the vigorous hygienic and sanitary measures now being undertaken in New York City more lives will be saved than are lost through the epidemic.
The disease is startling through its comparative newness, its method of spreading, the futility of any treatment, its symptoms, the high death rate and the permanent after effects which may ensue. The best available account of the nature of the disease, the manner of its conveyance and the means of prevention, is contained in an address given before the New York Academy of Medicine on June 13, by Dr. Simon Flexner, director of the laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, whose researches have contributed largely to what we know concerning infantile paralysis, or poliomyelitis, and spinal meningitis. Dr. Flexner tells us, in his address, which is printed in the issue of Science for July 21, that infantile paralysis is an infectious disease caused by an invasion of the spinal cord and brain by a minute filterable microorganism, which has now been secured in artificial cultures and is visible under the higher powers of the microscope. The virus exists not only in the central nervous organs, but also on the mucous membranes of the nose, throat and intestines. Less frequently it occurs in other organs and it has been found in the blood. The virus can be detected by inoculation tests upon monkeys, though with so much difficulty that ordinary bacteriological tests can not be employed for the discovery of the disease. In this manner it has, however, been determined that healthy persons may carry and spread the infection.
The virus of infantile paralysis leaves the infected patient through the secretions of the nose, mouth and intestines and enters the body as a rule, if not exclusively, by way of the mucous membranes of the nose and throat. Since epidemics of infantile paralysis always arrive during a period of warm weather, they have been thought to be connected with insect life. This has, however, been disproved, except in so far as domestic flies and other insects may serve as mechanical carriers. The paralytic diseases of domestic animals and pets are quite different from infantile paralysis and these animals must be acquitted of being hosts.
Infantile paralysis is one of the diseases in which insusceptibility is conferred by a previous attack and protection has been conferred on monkeys by inoculation with small amounts of the virus and by serum treatment. Promising results are said to have keen obtained in France on men but the quantity of human immune serum is very limited and no animal except the monkey seems capable of yielding the immune serum, and the monkey is not a practical animal from which to obtain supplies. The only drug which has shown any useful degree of activity is hexa-
