RESPIRATORY VERSUS GASTRO-INTESTINAL INFECTION IN POLIOMYELITIS

Abstract

The debated problem of gastro-intestinal versusrespiratory mode of infection in poliomyelitis has been restudied by several investigators recently, with conflicting findings. Kling and Levaditi in Europe carried out experiments from 1929 to 1933, which led them to the conclusion that the digestive tract affords a ready entrance of the virus of the disease into the body. They believe that the substitution of Macacus cynomolgus for Macacus rhesus as the animal of choice for the tests supports this point of view. Toomey in the United States has arrived at a similar conclusion, not by employing a particular species of monkey for experiment, but by the use of drastic measures of inoculation, which insure that the virus makes contact with the unmyelinated nerve fibers embedded in the intestinal wall. Toomey's methods are so severe and artificial that his results cannot be regarded as simulating a natural mode of infection.