MUSCLE SPASM IN THE ACUTE STAGE OF INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Abstract

The first account in the eighteenth century of the clinical characteristics of infantile paralysis is a subject of controversy which centers around Michael Under-wood in 1784. This date may therefore be accepted as a beginning of the modern concept of this disease. The particular behavior and the extent of infantile paralysis have made it a world problem. Because of its epidemiologic characteristics it has become common to many countries, with an increasing incidence during the past fifty years. It is primarily a disease of childhood, but adults are not immune to its provocation of death and deformity. These multiple threats of physical deficiency have intensified the search for methods of control and treatment during each succeeding decade. Although methods of preventing infantile paralysis have not been discovered there has been developed an established attitude toward the treatment of patients during the acute stage of infantile paralysis. In 1928 Jeremiah Milbank