POLIOMYELITIS

Abstract

MOST STUDIES on poliomyelitis seem to suggest that this disease is not limited to the spinal cord but often involves the entire nervous system; however, the degree and the nature of the involvement within the cerebral hemispheres, particularly within the cerebral cortex, have never been studied in detail in a large series of cases. It was felt that such a study in 75 fatal cases might be of value in determining the extent to which the virus of poliomyelitis involves the cerebral cortex and in explaining many of the clinical symptoms and signs of this disease which apparently are not spinal in origin. Strümpell¹in 1884 first described a form of cerebral paralysis in children which he felt was a cerebral form of poliomyelitis. The illness was acute in onset, associated with fever, vomiting, convulsions, and coma. The children remained unconscious for days and often manifested paralysis of an