SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. 



Abstracts of the Communications. 



Fiftieth meeting. 



Cornell University Medical College. October 16, IQI2. Dr. Lee 



in the chair. 



1 (697) 



A note on the mode of infection in epidemic poliomyelitis. 

 By Simon Flexner and Paul F. Clark. 



[From the Laboratories of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical 



Research.] 



Both in experimental and human epidemic poliomyelitis the 

 virus has been repeatedly demonstrated in the tonsils, in the nasal 

 mucous membrane, and in nasal washings, both from fatal and 

 acute cases. As the experimental disease can also be produced by 

 intranasal swabbing with the active virus it seems probable that 

 the nasal mucosa is one at least of the sources of the virus in the 

 outside world and also the means of its entrance to the body. 

 The marked viability of the virus under adverse conditions such as 

 drying, low temperature, etc., must also be considered as making 

 for a fairly well founded theory of the nasal route as one path 

 of the virus to and from the body. 



The precise manner in which microorganisms enter the body 

 through mucous membranes is difficult to establish. Because we 

 can produce experimental poliomyelitis by the application of the 

 active virus to the nasal mucous membrane, we have in this disease 

 a means of determining whether the virus so applied first enters 

 the blood stream and through this the central nervous system or 

 whether it ascends directly along the lymphatics that unite the 

 nasal mucosa with the central meninges. In experimental polio- 

 myelitis produced by any method of injection it is well known that 

 the virus is present throughout the central nervous system. But 

 after an intranasal injection, can the virus be demonstrated equally 

 early in all regions of the cord? 



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