CHAPTER LXXVI 



THE MICROBE OF INFANTILE PARALYSIS 



INFANTILE paralysis is properly a disease of 

 childhood. As a general thing, only children have 

 it. Adults may have it, but only rarely. Some do- 

 mestic animals, including birds, may also have it 



This disease is a disorder strictly of the nervous 

 system, located centrally in the marrow of the 

 spinal column. 



Being contagious and infectious, infantile par- 

 alysis is caused by a microbe. The germ, like the 

 germ of lockjaw and some other diseases, is, no 

 doubt, a microbe of the soil. It lives free in garden 

 soil, field soil, road soil. 



This probably explains why infant paralysis is 

 known as a child's disease. It may be simply be- 

 cause children play more in the soil, and therefore 

 are more liable to become infected by the germ. 



In this light, another mystery is cleared up: A 

 single case of this disease sometimes breaks out in 

 a lone neighborhood, where no other case for a 

 long distance around has occurred for many years. 

 Where does it come from? This is the mystery. 



But, considering that the germ which causes this 

 disease is a microbe of the soil, and present every- 

 where in the soil, the mystery vanishes. The ex- 



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