Report Volume 31 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ... give probability to this method of distribution. I have been able to find one or two cases which may have been abortive poliomyelitis, but they have been very few and not nearly so numerous as the cases of typical character. None of these cases however occurred in the families where there have been instances of genuine poliomyelitis. Moreover in regard to most of our cases if not all, there is no possibility of contact with any abortive cases of the disease. As has already been stated most of the outlying cases of these epidemics have been absolutely separated from contact with every person outside of their own immediate family, and inasmuch as in none of these cases had there been sickness which could be regarded as abortive poliomyelitis, it is certainly impossible to assume that the infections could have been taken from any such source. It is of course impossible to deny that abortive cases of the disease, unrecognized, may distribute the infection, but it is certainly somewhat illogical to assume that purely hypothetical abortive cases may be the cause of the distribution of the infection when in all of our cases in these two epidemics, there have not been a single instance of a secondary case appearing as a result of contact with the typical disease. In all of the families concerned in our epidemic the question as to the presence of other children and the contact of the patient with other children has been considered. In many of the families there have been quite a large number of children; in some cases as many as six other children living in the same room with the patient during the whole period of the illness. Considering the fact therefore that in all these seventy-five cases there is not a single instance of a secondary case developing from a pri...