August, '12] BRUES AND SHEPPARD: INFANTILE PARALY.SIS 323 



tion of the infection from al)road by immigrants or from other Ameri- 

 can ports. This city is on the Rhode Island border, on the eastern 

 shore of Mount Hope Bay, the northeast arm of Xarragansett Bay, 

 and the Taunton River, 20 miles from the sea. It is intimately con- 

 nected with Boston and Providence, and the intervening districts by 

 railways, and there is much interurban traffic carried on with Taunton, 

 New Bedford and Newport, R. I., also. From Boston it is 48 miles 

 distant, but from Providence only 20 miles. 



Fall River is a typical city of small manufactures, employing nearly 

 25,000 operatives in the production of cotton goods which form its 

 principal industry. It is rather densely populated in parts, ))ut covers 

 a large area, embracing over 40 square miles and including many 

 squalid districts. In these, most of the cases occurred. The water 

 supply is derived from Watuppa Lake, a body of water ten miles in 

 length on the eastern side of the city. It has a good system of sewers, 

 but, owing to the character of a great part of its population, is not as 

 cleanly as might be desired. 



New Bedford. Population approximately 96,000. 



New B.edford is a manufacturing town in Biistol County, near the 

 mouth of the Acushnet River. It is on the line of the New York, 

 New Haven and Hartford Railroad, 56 miles south of Boston, and 

 is connected with New York City and the islands of Vineyard Sound 

 by a regular steamboat service. Its industries are largely the manu- 

 facture of cotton goods, and in this trade nearly all (18,000) of its 

 wage earners are engaged. 



Four cases occurred in this city, an incidence of approximately 

 .04 per 1,000 of population. The usual series of domestic insects were 

 observed in the environment of these cases, including Stomoxys. 

 One adult case, female, 35 years of age, a mill hand, reports that the 

 overseer loom fixer, who lived within a block of her home, had a child 

 sick and unable to walk for three weeks. No diagnosis was obtained 

 in the case of the child, nor was it reported as a case of poliomyelitis. 



It may be stated, then, in a general way for all cases where Stomoxys 

 was seen, that this fly was observed in the house, on the house, on the 

 outhouses and barns; and occasionally in the patient's bed chamber. 



Thirteen cases occurred in this town, an incidence of approximately 

 .10 per 1,000 of population. The usual series of domestic insects were 

 observed in the environment of these cases, including Stomoxys. In 

 nearly every case domestic animals were seen and in four of these 

 sickness in cats was reported. One case in the city gave a history of 

 a strange cat straying into the house and being petted a good deal by 

 the child. The cat later died, and within six weeks of this cat's 



