Carriage of the Virus of Poliomyelitis, with Subsequent Development of the Infection

A family group containing four children of whom all showed in varying degree symptoms of poliomyelitis is described. The source of infection and periods of incubation have been followed. Two of the children were proven by inoculation tests to carry the virus of poliomyelitis in the nasopharynx. Of these, one was detected to be a carrier after recovering from a non-paralytic attack of the disease, and the other was discovered to be a carrier about 5 days before the initial symptoms, attended later by paralysis, appeared. The original case from which the three others took origin was fatal; the youngest child, after quite a severe onset, was treated with immune serum, and made a prompt and almost perfect recovery. The nasopharyngeal secretions of two of the cases, taken 1 month after the attack, proved incapable of neutralizing an active poliomyelitic virus. The proposition is presented that every case of poliomyelitis develops from a carrier of the microbic cause, or virus, of poliomyelitis.