302 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Acute Poliomyelitis. 



Charles A. Behrens. 

 Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. 



This subject is deemed worthy of discussion in detail because of the ex- 

 tensive outbreak of Infantile Paralysis in the United States in 1916, especially 

 the eastern part. 



In 1840 a detailed description of the symptoms of Infantile Paralysis 

 was published by Heine, an orthopedic surgeon, of Cannstadt, Germany, 

 although previous to this several cases of the disease had been reported. 

 He suggested that the seat of the disease was a serous exudate in the spinal 

 cord. 



Medin after studying forty-three cases in the Swedish epidemic in 1887 

 came to the conclusion that this was an infectious disease because of the 

 accompanying symptoms of fever, headache, gastro-intestinal disturbances, 

 etc. Wickman, who suggested Heine-Medin as the name of the disease, 

 after studying the epidemic of 1905 in Sweden in which over one thousand 

 cases occurred, first called attention to the fact that an abortive form may 

 occur without paralysis or any of the other symptoms. He also noted the 

 fact that the so-called Landry's type was most fatal. 



A great many authors describe their results of bacteriological findings, 

 especially in the cerebrosj)inal fluid. A typical example of the latter is that 

 of Geirsvold who was able to cultivate a gram positive diploeoccus on or- 

 dinary nutritive media. Upon injection of suspensions of this organism 

 into animals, he was able on several occasions to produce paralysis. His 

 work and that of others who also isolated cocci cannot be taken as authentic 

 because noted investigators like Wickman, Landsteiner, Popper and 

 Romer could not duplicate results of their experiments. 



Attempts were made to reproduce similar processes characteristic to 

 poliomyelitis by injecting different micro-organisms such as streptococci, 

 staphylococci directly into the blood current but the results were not satis- 

 factory and in no case were the histological changes similar to those of poli- 

 omyelitis. This was also true of Wickman's streptococcus strain which he 

 isolated from the spinal fluid of a poliomyelitis patient and exalted by succes- 

 sive animal passage. Injecting rabbits with the serous exudate in the spinal 

 cord from known positive cases gave absolutely negative results according to 

 Biilow-Hansen and Harbitz. 



All such attempts to determine the causative agent were unsatisfactory 

 until Landsteiner and Popper while studying the epidemic in Vienna in 1908, 

 were able to reproduce the disease with typical clinical symptoms and path- 

 ological findings by injecting monkeys with spinal cord from cases of poli- 

 omyelitis. From these successful experiments conclusions were made which 



