The treatment of infantile paralysis / by Oskar Vulpius ; translated by A. H. Todd.

  • Vulpius, Oscar, 1867-1936.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of infantile paralysis / by Oskar Vulpius ; translated by A. H. Todd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    January . . .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 February . . .. .. .. .. .. .. 5 March .. .. .. .. .. . . . . 4 April .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 4 May .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7 June .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 20 July .137 August.367 September .. .. .. .. .. .. 243 October .. .. .. . . .. .. .. 140 November .. .. .. .. . . .. 69 December .. .. .. . . . . . . 28 Total .. . . .. 1,025 The extent and distribution of the epidemic is accurately depicted in a large number of maps. The towns suffered little, and the disease was practically confined to the plains. Its distribution about the larger areas was for the most part radial, whilst in the smaller ones one finds several members of the same household, or inhabitants of neighbouring houses, afflicted with the disease. Direct or indirect contact can be demonstrated between almost all those who were attacked. It follows that the epidemic spread along the lines of social intercourse, the main roads and the railways. Symptoms of paralysis were observed in dogs, guinea-pigs, and even in fowls. Several small epidemics have been recorded in Italy, France, Austria, America, and Australia, and a larger one of about 1,000 cases took place in New York and other Eastern States. In Germany occasional notes of increased incidence were made, as, for instance, by Pleuss, of Kiel, in 1897, and by Auerbach at Frankfurt in 1898, but the authors were not able to establish any epidemiological facts of importance. It was not until 1909 that we experienced in Germany the horrors of an epidemic, and then one arose in Breslau, and another and a larger one in Rheinland and Westphalia, affecting in all more than 500 persons, and causing over sixty deaths. The average mortality was stated to be 15 per cent., and it was thought that the disease was increasing in virulence, and changing somewhat in its clinical features. In this epidemic scientific investigations were made in the affected areas, and legislative measures were introduced. Such accounts of the outbreak as have been published up to the present time have fully confirmed the observations of our Swedish confreres, and especially of Medin and Wickmann. As in the American epidemic, the death of fowls with paralytic symptoms was recorded. At about the same time Styria was overrun by an epidemic which amounted to more than 1,000 cases, and a serious outbreak occurred in the Western States of America, extending to the Pacific coast.