The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1914. CAUTION NEEDED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 35, 2 June 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1914. CAUTION NEEDED.

The fact that a bright and promising! young life has boon taken in our very midst brings closely home to the poo- 1 pie of the district the very serio'isi nature of that mysterious and ail-too-! fatal disease known to the medical world as poliomyelitis, and more commonly designated "infantile paralysis." As to whence the disease arises it, is still quite unknown, but it lias been ascertained that a 5 virus may be obtained from practically all parts of the body of a patient suffering from the disease, it apparently is in the nature of a blood infection, tha after effects of which are strictly manifest, in the spinal cord, and recent research seems to hare established the fact that the 1 accompanying paralysis which makes; ( known the presence ot the disease is! rather an accident in its course than . an essential pari of it. Fifty year-, ape a German scientist, who is credited] with being the original describer, re- < marked that epidemics of the disease | sometimes occurred, and the conclusion therefore was that it bears the nature of an infective fever. One supposition which has held good until uiosl i\.ren! lime... namely, ihut, adult.-sJ km iumuue, J* cwtainlj a wrong <

one, for in this Dominion and in many other parts of the world, cases have occurred of adults contracting thei disease and. as in our own town, succumbing to it. While one naturally: lias reluctance to discuss closely mat-! ters which must be painful to the immediate connections of a victim to] this dreaded complaint, there is a| public duty to perform, and a lesson to he driven borne to the community! at large. It: is tolerably certain to- 1 day that poliomyelitis is a disease of: a highly infective nature, and might, be more properly described as infectious spinal paralysis. That being so. we should be glad to know that the Health Department is faking the full-, est steps to prevent the spread of this disease whoever an isolated case should make it- appearance. We are not aware whether or not this is being done. • We are informed that so far as Stratford is concerned, in this present ease, that proper seeps have been taken, but we hope that Dr. Yalintine as head of his Department, will realise to the full the great gravity of the situation, and that the Department will spare no effort or expense in endeavoring to stamp out of this Dominion the disease. We have no desire to be in any sense alarmist, but we are convinced that the position of any centre in which a ease, or cases, of poliomyelitis should appear, is a more serious one than the general! public Fully realises. We have made some inquiry as to whether any warn-] ing could be given to the public by the medical fraternity, but except as a general precaution against all communicative diseases, a recommendation that telephone mouthpieces should be regularly disinfected, and that ordin-j ary precautions against infection be] taken, there is little else to say. In the complaint which we have particularly referred to in this article the secretions of tho mouth and nose are; stated to be especially infectious, and its earlier stages are sometimes peculiarly like that very common modern enomy, influenza.