Infantile paralysis in 17th century Lancashire / by A. Fessler.

  • Fessler, A.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Infantile paralysis in 17th century Lancashire / by A. Fessler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MALONEY1 (1949), by analysing the following case history and post mor¬ tem report, has been the first to establish the fact that infantile paralysis occurred towards the end of the 17th century on the continent of Europe. In 1699, a boy of six years, living in Alsace, developed suddenly a paralysis of both his legs after he had had a ride on the shoulders of his brother. His right leg remained permanently paralysed, but his left leg recovered after a considerable time so that he was able to walk short distances with the help of a stick. He became a printer by trade and died of a fever at the age of forty in 1733 in Strassbourg. J. G. Salzman, who had performed the necropsy, published his findings in 1735. He found that the right leg was shorter than the left one and that nearly all its muscles were considerably wasted. Salzman expressed the opinion that the paralysis was caused by a strain of the muscles of the legs which strain took place when the boy was riding on the shoulders of his brother; the left leg recovered because less strain had been exerted on this side than on the other side. There can be hardly any doubt that Maloney is right in assuming that the history of the paralysis, its sudden onset, and the partial recovery from it, as well as the pathological changes of the muscles of the leg which remained paralysed, are typical of polyomyelitis. Concluding, Maloney suggested that further research should be done “to uncover earlier cases”. English Local History Documents which deal with the administration of the poor- relief constitute a source of information which can be used for this type of research. Whilst I was carrying out an investigation of the Lancashire records with regard to the con¬ ditions of the sick poor during the 17th century (Fessler)2, I came across a few docu¬ ments concerning lame children or persons who had become lame in their youth, which seem to suggest that infantile paralysis has been the cause of the lameness. A large number of the poor who presented a petition to the Quarter Sessions, asking for relief, described themselves as being “lame”. This term appears also frequently in the orders concerning the payments of allowances, which orders the Justices of the Peace issued to the churchwardens and the overseers of the poor who were responsible for the adminis¬ tration of the Poor Law Statute in the parishes. The term “lame” acquired some form of legal significance after it was laid down in the Elizabethan Poor Law Statute (43. Eliz. c. 2) that the parishes had to “raise competent sumes of Money for and towardes the necessarie Reliefe of the lame impotente olde blinde and such others amonge them beinge poore and unable to worke”3. The further details, however, which most of the lame petitioners gave of their distressed condition, allow one, in quite a number of cases, to diag¬ nose with a varying degree of certainty the cause of the lameness. The two principal causes were a paralysis after an apoplexy, and a crippling form of arthritis. Phrases like “the use of the limbs hath been suddenly taken away” indicate the first of these two causes, especially if the person who presented the petition (or for whom it was presented) belonged to the higher age groups. Refer¬ ences to a lameness combined with severe pains in the back, in the hips or in other joints, point to the second cause. Among the petitions which concern lame children, lame adolescents or lame persons who had become lame in their youth, are, as has been stated above, a few, altogether ten, which suggest that their lameness might have been caused by an attack of infantile paralysis. In contrast to children who “had been borne lame” or who “had been lame since infant” (congenital malformation, e.g. dislocated hip, etc.), these children or adolescents had been healthy until they were suddenly “struck lame”. The lameness usually affected the lower extremities; some of the children recovered partially, like the case analysed by Maloney, sometimes it was stated that the distemper proved to be incurable. All the illnesses which are suggestive of infantile paralysis occurred at two different periods of the century. The first period lasted from about 1630 to 1640, the second period corresponding to the outbreak on the continent, described by Maloney, started towards the end of the century. The lameness of Edward Williamson, a husbandman living in Tarbock, near Liver¬ pool, who in 1700 applied to the Justices for a weekly allowance to be paid by his parish, can be dated back to the late twenties of the 17th century. Williamson, who described himself as being about 75 years old, informed the Justices in his petition that when he was “about two years ould or under (he) was as it pleased God strucke lame from the right hip downwards soe that after a great sickness was verie like not to goe at all but in process of time it pleased God to give such strength that I could goe more and more soe when I came to ensuing the Tenement my father left