Report of the Poliomyelitis Committee of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia : epidemic 1910.

  • Washington State Medical Association. Poliomyelitis Committee.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Poliomyelitis Committee of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia : epidemic 1910. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.* INTRODUCTION. In the summer of 1910, the increasing alarm which the preva- lence of infantile paralysis in the District of Columbia was gener- ally causing, led to the appointment by the President of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia of a committee, the duty of which should be to investigate the prevalence of the disease and any other facts of interest concerning it, and report the same to the Association. The President, Dr. N. P. Barnes, appointed the following committee: Dr. Philip S. Roy, Chairman; Dr. Prentiss Willson, Secretary, and Drs. Geo. N. Acker, J. B. Nichols, B. M. Randolph, Tom A. Williams and Wm. C. Woodward. At the first meeting of the committee the President of the Association was requested to add the following well-known scientific men to the committee as associate members: John F. Anderson, M. D., Director of the Hygienic Laboratory, U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service; Wm. H. Hough, M. D., Clinical Path- ologist. Government Hospital for the Insane; Frederick F. Rus- sell, M. D., Major, Medical Corps, U.S.A.; and Wm. A. White, M. D., Superintendent, Government Hospital for the Insane. The committee wishes to avail itself of this opportunity to ex- press to these gentlemen its appreciation of their courtesy and of the invaluable nature of their work with the committee. It also takes occasion to thank those physicians who, by their cooperation in reporting their cases, made this report possible, and in this connection it feels that a special expression of its appreciation i? due the Staff of the Children's Hospital for their painstaking re- port of a large series of cases. While, as the committee is thoroughly aware, nothing new has been added along the lines of epidemiology, symptomatology, or treatment, it feels that the work of Drs. Hough and Lafora along pathological lines presents much that is new and of great value and interest. And while the committee was unable to obtain re- ports on more than 50 per cent, of the cases known to have occurred in Washington and immediately adjacent suburbs, it believes that the proportions and importance of the Washington •epidemic of 1910 are such as to make its record and formal report a matter of obvious expedience. In any event the committee be- lieves the report to be of value as an addition to the numerical method in the Science of Medicine. EPIDEMIOLOGY OF POUOMYEUTIS IN THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. Number and Distribution of Cases.—The committee received from various sources information of .^)52 cases, but upon investi- * A report of a committee of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia made to the Association April 25, 1911 and ordered to be printed.