54 
Scientific Proceedings (42). 
again. The results are claimed to be eminently satisfactory but 
there may be objections to its application to the comparatively 
sensitive skin of the human subject on account of its irritating 
qualities which do not obtain in the case of animals. 
The method adopted by me, which is a modification of that 
employed by Grossich, is as follows: Immediately before the 
animal — e. g., cat or dog — is put into the ether chamber the hair 
is cut short and the skin shaved dry along the line of the intended 
incision. Tincture of iodine (U.S. P. 7.5 per cent, in 95 alcohol) 
is painted on and a little way around the shaved area with a camel 
hair brush and the anaesthetic is administered. When the animal 
is fully under (with ether this usually takes ten to fifteen minutes) 
and placed on the table a second application of the iodine is made 
a minute or two before the skin is incised, and a third, after the 
stitches are in, when the operation is finished. No dressing of 
any kind is applied to the wound but the day following the opera- 
tion a fourth application of the tincture is made. No further 
treatment is necessary, 
During the last four months many operations have been per- 
formed in this laboratory on a variety of animals — rabbits, cats, 
dogs, sheep, raccoons, opossums, etc., and in every case where 
the above procedure has been adopted healing has been by first 
intention and rapid. 
3i (556) 
The Diagnosis of Abortive Cases of Poliomyelitis by the 
Demonstration of Specific Antibodies. 
By JOHN P. ANDERSON and WADE H. FROST. 
[U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, 
Washington, D. C] 
The occurrence of abortive cases of poliomyelitis has already 
been established upon clinical and epidemiological ground. Netter 
and Levaditi 1 have given the only specific proof of an abortive 
case of poliomyelitis in a human being by demonstrating, in the 
serum of such a case, immune bodies capable of neutralizing the 
better, A., & Levaditi, C, Compt. Rend, de la Soc. de Biol., vol. 68, 1910, pp. 
855-857. 
