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Show Infantile Paralysis Wave May j , ( Let Science Test Preventive Nasal Sprays Save Laboratory Monkeys, i - x . ' But Will They Work on Humans? , C ; t i " ' " '::V :i ,,:x--V ' :: . . , . . 7. - ': :7 V-. .v:i:'x-,. '" vV v4 I ' : -i pkMfTh'M?- I . 7;,;, : : y -: ! li .; ': .! i:Islilsllf it iStlmi: : Iptl 1 ; " " t I - 1 -: J ,; ': - v''V u . mmmmmm im 6iKaMiiiPi pipJwial liil mmmmmmmmtmmwttmmm ?nfwMl Hero monkey that's what science calls the tiny rhesus monkey, like the little fellow here, wliose nose is being sprayed in an experiment to test a preventive for infantile paralysis; thousands of monkeys have died in the cause. If the sprays prove successful on humans it may mean the end of pitiful cases like that of the little girl above. The annual, nation-wide series of President's Birthday parties helps to raise funds for the research re-search work; a scene from one is also shown. I By WILLIAM C. UTLEY WITH a wave of infantile paralysis assuming serious seri-ous proportions in the south central region of the United States, science may find its long-awaited opportunity to make mass tests of nose sprays as a means of preventing pre-venting the dread, crippling disease. Nasal sprays have proved nearly 100 per cent effective upon laboratory labora-tory monkeys, which respond to poliomyelitis poli-omyelitis (infantile paralysis) in the same way humans do. But until an extensive outbreak of the disease occurred there was no chance to conduct experiments upon humans, for the lives of large numbers of persons must not be endangered unnecessarily. un-necessarily. Now that outbreak may be at hand, for the south central regions are reporting an increase in "polio" cases far over the normal increase which comes with the summer months. Between May 9 and July 24 there were, according to the United States public health service, 486 cases reported from the west south central region, as compared with only 18 cases for the same period pe-riod of 1936 and 65 cases for the same period of 1935. During these weeks the east south central region reported 317 cases as compared with 234 in 1936 and 57 in 1935. There was some indication of the spread of the disease eastward. Doctors hope that the nose spray will be proved definitely successful in its application to human beings, for it is more than a century since the first written account of poliomyelitis polio-myelitis was made by a trained physician. English Doctor Started Crusade. Even so, progress has been phenomenally phe-nomenally rapid in the light of the age of the disease, for it is probably prob-ably as old as mankind. But it was only 102 years ago that Dr. John Badham, of Worksop, England, Eng-land, moved by the condition of four tiny patients, pleaded through the medium of medical journals for other oth-er doctors to come to his aid with suggestions for the cure of a disease dis-ease nobody knew anything about. Dr. Badham's paper, telling of the plight of the four crippled youngsters young-sters doomed to pathetically unhappy unhap-py lives, launched one of the greatest great-est crusades in medical history. Poorly equipped as they were, doctors doc-tors of the Nineteenth century did not hesitate in responding to the pioneering pio-neering Badham's call for assistance. assist-ance. Only five years later, Jacob von Heine, German orthopedic surgeon of Cannstaat, made public an important im-portant study of infantile paralysis. His practice brought him in contact with many cases of deformed limbs in children. A shrewd observer, he noticed something about young paralytics par-alytics which other medical men had largely overlooked. He saw that paralysis was the result of some kind of acute disease which preceded preced-ed the appearance of muscular weakness. ( Get on Trail of Germ. The discovery was epochal for, in other words, Heine perceived that paralysis in children didn't just happen hap-pen it had a definite antecedent cause. He won for himself a place of honor in ranks of those battling against the spread of infantile paralysis. paral-ysis. It was a battle that widened to many more fronts as time wore on, and by 1885 the infectious nature na-ture of the disease was pretty generally gen-erally accepted. Yet it was not until 1908 that the first real advance was made in the search for a germ. Then Land-steiner Land-steiner and Popper, in Paris, injected inject-ed portions of the brain and spinal chord, taken from a fatal human case of infantile paralysis, into some monkeys. They succeeded in infecting the monkeys with the disease, dis-ease, thus putting it on an experimental experi-mental basis for the first time. Only a short time later several doctors almost simultaneously managed to pass poliomyelitis from one monkey to another. They were Flexner and Lewis in New York, Leiner and Von Wiesner in Vienna, and Landsteiner and Levaditi in Paris. The way was now cleared to studying the mechanism of the disease. dis-ease. It was indicated how the germ was spreading, but scientists still had not banded in any united effort. It took a national tragedy to wake them up. In the summer of 1916 the great infantile paralysis epidemic hit the United States. It began in a small area in Brooklyn, then spread rapidly rap-idly over the rest of New York City and Long Island, eventually cascading cascad-ing over the entire country. It touched every state, and struck down more than 25,000 persons, most of them children. Health Officers at Loss. Panic swept the nation. In the mistaken belief that only those under un-der sixteen were susceptible, railroad rail-road officials refused to let children ride on trains. Vigilante bands of citizens established unofficial martial mar-tial law in many places, and health certificates were required as "passports" "pass-ports" for children moving from one community to another. Health officers made every conceivable con-ceivable effort to check the disease, but they still lacked a working knowledge of ways and means to combat its ravages. The epidemic died of itself, finally, and so did public terror. There have been lesser less-er epidemics since then; 15,000 cases were reported in 1931, and 10,000 each in the years 1927 and 1935. Medical science recognized infantile infan-tile paralysis as one of its most challenging problems and redoubled its efforts to find an answer. Foundations, Foun-dations, research laboratories both public and private, universities and individual physicians and research workers concentrated their attention atten-tion upon it. But it remained for a layman, Col. Henry L. Dohcrty, to begin the most novel move in the battle, one which popularized the fight among all classes of Americans. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a victim of infantile paralysis, in-spirea in-spirea the move. President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's previous interest in the cause of fellow sufferers had been repeatedly repeat-edly manifested by activities on behalf be-half of the Warm Springs, Ga., foundation foun-dation where victims are treated. First President's Birthday Ball. Visiting Warm Springs in 1933, Colonel Doherty also became deeply deep-ly interested, and acquired a firsthand first-hand knowledge of the research and after-treatment work going forward in th is country. lie saw the need for more widespread co-ordination of cllort. ACler discussing the mat ter with the President, he conceived the idea of a gigantic series oi parties which would enable millions of Americans to do their share in the war on polio. Under Colonel Doherty's direction i the mammoth party-organizing task was started. A national headquarters headquar-ters was established in New York and civic-minded persons were called upon to help. The first series of parties was held on January 30, j 1934, the President's birthday. Funds Aid Experiment. So far more than $4,000,000 has j been raised by the annual parties.' Seventy per cent remains to fight ! infantile paralysis in the community ; where it was raised, while 30 per cent goes to the national fund, to be used for- research or rehabilitation work. One important use to which the . receipts from the parties was put was the development of the nasal spray preventive for poliomyelitis. i How this spray came to be discovered dis-covered is a dramatic episode in j medical history. The subvisible microbes mi-crobes have ever defied scientists' to follow their meanderings. Yet, 1 after long and brilliant experimentation, experimen-tation, scientists in laboratories in" New York, Chicago, Stanford uni-i. versity and London at last found out that the nose was a doorway to the polio virus. j In the laboratories of the United; States public health service, Charles' Armstrong, a "microbe hunter," de-: cided that if he could find some means of blocking that doorway,, there would be no way for the dead-1 ly germs to attack. For three years , he experimented with a whole drove j of rhesus monkeys. Finally he found what he wanted. By washing the insides of the monkeys' noses with a weak solution of picric acid and alum, he was able to save 24 out of 25 monkeys exposed to a hot, ex- ceptionally dangerous infantile pan ralysis virus! Confusion Hampers Test. Armstrong was confident that il his solution worked with monkeys; it ought to be effective on humans. But he was forced to wait for an opportunity to make the test. It apparently ap-parently arrived last summer, whenj an epidemic broke out in Alabama, i Mississippi and Tennessee. Rush-t ing to the scene, he won widespread support to his plan of spraying the solution into the children's noses. He planned to have the doctors, supervise the spraying and keep careful records. Unfortunately the . experiment got out of hand: tjie doctors became swamped with ae-t, mands upon their time and n'. parents used the easily procurable -j solution without bothering about sci-j -entific counsel on its use. (: After salvaging what records he; could and making extensive rec ords of his own, Armstrong decidea i,, that a more powerful solution w b needed. Two California scientist working on funds supplied by y President's Birthday Ball commission, commis-sion, supplied it. They were , W. Schultz and L. P. Gcbhardt l Stanford university, and they fered a 1 per cent zinc sulphate lution. Zinc sulphate had bee,, us for years as an eyewash. 1 icy . covered it was virtually 100 P cent effective in preventing mf-'"1 paralysis when sprayed mto . noses of monkeys. ; . Woslorn Ncwspapor Union- |