, has baffled medical science.
Bellefonte, Pa., December 5, 1930.
INFANTILE PARALYSIS.
Gov. Roosevelt Opened Way to
Restore Thousands of Victims
of the Disease.
In the United States today there
are more than 300,000 persons who
are partly or wholly crippled. To
these people an active life is us-
ually closed, and to their care al-
most an squal number must give all
or a large part of their time, sO
that perhaps the aggregate economic
Joss to the nation from this cause
may be reckoned at approximately
500,000 lives which are removed
from normal pursuits and produc-
tiveness.
In 1921, soon after he had finish-
ed a strenuous campaign as the
Democratic nominee for the Vice-
Presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt
was suddenly stricken by poliomye-
litis—infantile paralysis.
Out of that great personal mis-
fortune has grown a hope for thous.
ands of other cripples—a chance,
even a probability, that they may
return to the joys of active life, and
to economic usefulness, thereby re-
lieving their faithful friends and
attendants of additional sacrifices.
Half of our cripples, or some
150,000 persons, are the victims of
infantile paralysis, that strange
malady which for such a long time
Until
Gov. Roosevelt focussed attention
upon the
treatment at Warm Springs,
no systematized attempt ever had
been made to develop methods of
alleviating its crippling after-effects.
Infantile paralysis, we are told,
was first recorded in Germany in
about 1860. It next appeared in
Scandinavia, and in the early
States first felt
n an epidemic in
nineties the United
its dread effects i
Vermont,
Since then, the cases have been
widely scattered geographically, but
the great majority have been in the
northern and eastern States. There
1s an increasing tepuenel for it to
range slightly higher through the
age classes, but, strangely enough,
it is almost equally divided between
the sexes.
Recently the disease has been the
subject of the cloest scrutiny by the
medical profession. The Milbank
Foundation, the Rockefeller Institute,
the International Infantile Paralysis
Commission and the Harvard Infan-
tile Paralysis Commission all are
conducting research in this import-
ant field.
But even today little is known.
The germ, never isolated or identi-
fied, is thought to be a sort of
“cousin” to the flu germ. Since it
attacks children chiefly, it has been
the more difficult to search out the
cause - of innoculation or even to
establish the “period of incubation,”
the time between exposure to the
disease and . the development of
symptoms.
Now it seems reasonably
that incubation occurs in 6 to
days, but science cannot say even
yet with any certainty how the dis-
ease is carri
taken into the system.
Jt seems a peculiar thing that in
the animal kingdom only the mon-
key is a victim of the disease or
can be innoculated with it. This has
greatly narrowed research, because
monkeys are expensive,
In captivity they appear
subject to many diseases,
not only is research costly, but
many an experiment ends in failure
because these denizens of the jungle
succumb to other diseases of man.
kind, even before the “polio”
periments can be completed.
Infantile paralysis is described as
essentially an inflammation of the
nervous system, which kills or
cripples the cells giving marching
orders to the muscles. If the
muscles of the vital organs are
crippled, death ensues.
It is reasonably certain now that
the disease confers future immunity
upon its victims and that a serum
from the blood of persons who have
had it may be administered to protect
suspicious cases. Statistics on
Massachusetts cases, prepared by
Dr. W. L. Aycock, of the Harvard
Medical School, indicate that this
serum treatment reduces the death
rate and the instances of total or
serious paralysis by more than two-
thirds.
But when Gov. Roosevelt was at-
tacked by the disease nine years
ago, not all these facts had been
established, Infantile paralysis came
out of nowhere—a mystery—struck
without reason and raged to a fatal
conclusion, despite the growing op-
position of the medical profession,
or else it departed as mysteriously,
leaving behind an individual crippled
in body and muscular activity.
There was no pathological effect
on the brain, but scores of thous-
ands were left maimed in mental
outlook, life would pass them by.
Franklin Roosevelt was discourag-
ed, but pot beaten. Burned-out
nerve cells in his powerful lower
livyhs gave no orders, but medical
men said that these cells, though
damaged, were not dead and might
be brought back to some degree of
function.
Thus began Roosevelt's fight back
' to health. It was a fight which led
him to the Governor's chair and
culminated recently in the issuance
of a $500,000 insurance policy on his
life at standard rates.
The beneficiary
is the Georgia
Warm Springs
Foundation, that
philanthropic enterprise which he
has been building up, and which he
believes to be the first of a series of
institutions destined to do great
restorative werk among the cripples
of the United States.
In the beginning of his illness the
Governor tried massage and mild
exercise. He began to study what little
was known of curing this form of
paralysis. Exercise, he discovered,
was more beneficial under water
because there it is not necessary
ed or exactly how it is.
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"their own surgeons, pay actual cost!
i corded.
for the enfeebled muscles to work
so strenuously to overcome
But in ordinary bathing the water
quickly chills affected members,
through which circulation is slug-
gish. Exercising in heated water,
on the other hand, proved to be
stimulating, and muscles began to.
respond.
About this time George Foster
Peabody wrote to the Governor, tell
ing him of a Georgia boy who had
cured his paralysis by swimming at
Warm Springs, Ga. This resulted
in Mr. Roosevelt's making a trip to
try exercising in the pool fed by the
warm mineral springs.
This
from a subterraneun source of 2,000
feet and reaches the surface at an
even 90-degree temprature year in
and year out, was not enervating.
It was, therefore, possible to re-
main in the water for long periods
and to gain the most complete
benefits from systematized exercise.
A circumstance which at the time
was rather amusing advanced this,
cause. An enterprising reporter |
gave wide publicity, during the cam-
paign of 1924, to the fact that the
former vice-presidential candidate
was swimming back to health, as
had Annette Kellerman, who had
been an infantile paralysis victim as
a baby.
That story, carrying pictures of
Mr. Roosevelt and Miss Kellerman
side by side, and appearing as a
syndicated feature throughout the
country, caused 25 infantile victims
to come to Warm Springs, from
widely separated sections in April |
1925. |
So Roosevelt tried, with the aid |
of a local physician, to systematize |
treatment.
i
The following year, a |
problem of yestorative | committee of physicians from the |
- | National Orthopedic Association in.
2
vestigated this pioneer effort, a
Al
proved it and made suggestions.
six-month experimental study under
the supervision of Dr. LeRoy W. |
Hubbard, New York state ortho-|
pedic surgeon, was begun.
Such astonishing resulis were i
tained that many leading orthopedic
surgeons urged that the experiment |
be enlarged in scope.
Georgia Warm Spri
was organized in the spring
With privately raised funds,
tract of 1,200 acres,
the warm springs, an old hotel and
many cottages, was acquired. The
:
warm water, which comes |-
cu
f
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DECKER CHEVROLET CO,
Phone 405 ...... BELLEFONTE, PA.
philanthropic purposes the $7,000,-| “Many of the leading orthopedic
000 estate of that pioneer manu- | surgeons have come to recognize
facturer of flashlights, they listed | the growing importance of physi-
ob- | the Georgia W
tion as one of
And so the | develop
ngs Foundation | branche
of 1927. | assure i
on which were | pedic specialists we
Roosevelt.
Chicago,
committee named
| Conrad Hubert to
theory to an established
treatment.”
The Governor goes on to say:
sat down recently as a!
in the will of
distribute for
system of
otherapy, especially when these di-
‘rected exercises are given in the
medium of warm water. Certainly
the results obtained so far at Warm
arm Springs Founda- |
the 33 beneficiaries.
at the Foundation may
mony with all
In order th
in har
s of medical science, and to Springs, Ga., prove the value of
t the best medical advice warm water treatment.
a |and supervision, a board of ortho- Placing the Georgia Warm NOW had fallen gen-
tion on a permanent
basis means not
work among
but eventually
Springs Founda
and much larger
only ‘more effective
more patients there,
re formed by Mr. erously for several
days in Western Pennsylvania and the country
Its members are: Doctors LeRoy
property was modernized, the pools |C. Abbot and Fred Warren Bailey, ; i sides rang with the merr tinkle of sleigh bell
enlarged, concrete walks bulit for |of St. Louis; George E. Bennett, oti e sstaLisiment of Sila? gentess that ng h i ia the hb 2 0 i
wheel chairs, with ramps at the cot- | Baltimore; Frank C. Dixon, of Kan-|12 many other sections of the at had long hung rusting in the barns. ne
tages, and steam heat installed so sas City; Albert H. Freiberg, of ns think most cripples—children or cheery member of the farm community had
that the plant might function the | Cincinnati; George Draper, of TZ | aquit—are worth tak turned to his telephone and passed along the
year around.
After a while, another pool was
added, so that one was available for
under-water exercises on tables, bars
and rings, and another was avail-
able for swimming.
When Edsel Ford visited Warm
Springs in the fall of 1927, he noted
the need for a pool enclosed
against bad weather, and presented
a beautiful pool to the Foundation,
It is 35 by 86 feet, glass roofed and
steam-heated, with dressing rooms
and facilities for sun baths. Pa.
tients who have benefited have add-
ed an infir y recently, and grad-
ually remodeling has occurred until
re on a plateau, 1,000 feet above
sea level, 70 miles out of the Atlantic,
there has grown up a constantly
changing little community of happy
people, as visitors will attest.
They come by recommendation of
of their care and keep, are examined
and have their cases carefully re-
After a brief rest, follow-!
arrival, there begins a |
ing their
, daily regime of systematized exer-
women, all trained paysiotherapists,
ex-
‘ scientifically for each different case
to be ' cise.
so that!
{
A staff of 10 to a dozen young
go into the pool with patients each |
morning, giving each patient special |
exercises on the submerged tables. |
Specialized treatment worked out
is watched carefully and the degree
of improvement shown is recorded.
Gradually there has been built up a
knowledge regarding remedial treat-
ment such as had been available
nowhere else in the world before.
The girls in charge of treatments
are also swimming instructors for
those who cannot swim, and, follow-
the formalized exercise regime, the
pools resound to the shouts and
laughter of patients playing water
games.
Visitors have been amazed at the
speed with which persons partially
paralyzed for years acquire skill in
swimming.
The youngsters especially take to
swimming quickly. Last year there
there was a four.year-old boy who
seemed more adept under water
than on it, while an eight-year-old
girl, whose recovery had been de-
spaired of by her family, returned
to her Kansas home walking with
braces and promptly won a free-for-
all race for swimmers under 10,
Sun baths, luncheons,
then patients
never would walk again are out on
the walking ramps learning how all
over again. They learn to climb
stairs, and the best exercises
strengthen their back muscles.
And from these patients, living |
under healthful conditions, come
serums which help to save
from a similar condition.
and regaining mastery of them-
selves, they are glad to aid the fight |
of others against this dread disease. |
I should explain that no quick
miracles are performed. The pro- |
cess is a slow one, covering tedious
months and years. But many who
have gone to Warm Springs quite :
helpless have come to walk with
braces, or with a cane, even
without material aid.
This is not only a restorative in.
stitution, but a laboratory, a pioneer
experiment, and, as the ultimate !
possibilities of the project have be-
come better understood, we have |
had help from such prominent men
as Vincent Astor, John D. Rockefel-
ler, Jr., Walter Chrysler, Herbert
Lehman, Fred Vanderbilt, Pierre du |
Pont, Paul Warburg, the Harriman
brothers, Jeremiah Milbank and
many others.
When former President Coolidge,
former Gov, Alfred E. Smith, of
New York, and Julius Rosenwald, of
rest—and |
others
or
i §
who thought they §
York; Ludwig
idge H. Moore, of
T.
B.
Porter, of Evanston, Ill.
Paul Haertl, of Berlin, Germany.
Gov. Roosevelt points out, “from a
~ —E
ing an interest
in. Restorative work is economical-
ly sound; humanely, jt is right. It
{s reaching out to a field for which
no other agency is now adequately
caring. We need pioneers.”
Hektoen and Bever-
Chicago; Arthur
Ober and Robert
on; John Lincoln
and Dr.
word for a general sleighing party by moon-
light—an evening’s entertainment which proved
the social event of the year.
Legg, Frank R.
Osgood, of Bost
2
The Foundation has passed, as
— Subscribe for the Watchman.
| The Modern Farm Home
Has « TELEPHONE
Checks to the lucky ones who were prudent
enough to provide funds for Christmas in little
savings during the year, have been mailed.
The New Series for 1931 is Now Open
Begin to Save for Next Christmas
On Saturday, December 6
Promptly at. 9 a.m.
The Fauble 44th
niversary Sale Begins
The little weekly amounts required will
prove a joy and a delight when you withdraw
them in a lump sum.
THE FiRsT NATIONAL BANK
BELLEFONTE, PA.
| 2
to |
|
1 fie
Li!
Immune f
Present economic conditions have made
this sale the Greatest Money-Saving
Event of the year. Everything in our
entire store included in this great sale at
prices that will save you many, many
dollars.
Baney’s Shoe Store
WILBUR H. BANEY, Proprietor
80 years in the Business
BUSH ARCADE BLOCK
BELLEFONTE, PA.
SPECIAL O
ELSE
jo
-
|
Cn ——
fi}
Be Here Promptly at. 9 a.m.
Saturday, December 6th
YOUR CHRISTMAS TURKEY
This is to call your attention to
thie fact that we have bought for
hundreds of Christmas dinners the
finest turkeys we could locate. We
have them—plump and tender—in
all weights, both gobblers and
hens. We ask that you let us have
your order as early as possible so
that we oan reserve for you the
bird that will meet your needs.
Market on the Diamond
Telephone 666
Bellefonte, Penna.
P. L. Beezer Estate.....Meat Market
Remember---It’s At,
FAUBLE'S
Our 44th Birthday