Medicine: Pool of Bethesda

A simple but apparently efficient remedy for the late stages of infantile paralysis (anterior poliomyelitis) was tried out at the Northwestern University Medical School and used by the Visiting Nurses’ Assocciation of Chicago. Graded exercises for the children’s paralyzed limbs are performed in a large circular tank partly filled with shallow, tepid water. The children sit on a circular bench in the tank with their legs immersed for several hours at a time. The device was suggested by a woman whose little daughter, crippled by the disease, was taken to Florida and allowed to spend much time in the warm water at the beach. The child recovered the use of her limbs and learned to swim. The medical fact underlying the treatment is that moderate heat causes increased blood supply in the parts affected, relieving inflammation and stimulating movement. The method has not yet been tried on a large scale, but offers promise.

Infantile paralysis is an infectious disease which attacks certain portions of the gray matter of the spinal cord, usually in children, inhibiting the motor action of the lower limbs. Comparatively little is known about it, although it has been the subject of exhaustive study since the great epidemic of 1916. Theories that it is spread by invisible discharges from the respiratory passages have not as yet been confirmed.