. Diseases of children. cord. Thisdisease does not affect the sensory fibers; the main motorfibers which run through the anterior columns are intactand there are no trophic disturbances. Symptoms.—Exaggerated knee-jerks, ankle-clonus, anda spastic gait, sometimes spoken of as scissors gait. Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis or Infantile —This is an acute disease which occurs almost exclu-sively in young children, and is characterized by thedestruction of nerve-cells in the brain and spinal cord, es-pecially in the anterior horns of gray matter. Since 1907 epidemics of infantile paralysis
. Diseases of children. cord. Thisdisease does not affect the sensory fibers; the main motorfibers which run through the anterior columns are intactand there are no trophic disturbances. Symptoms.—Exaggerated knee-jerks, ankle-clonus, anda spastic gait, sometimes spoken of as scissors gait. Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis or Infantile —This is an acute disease which occurs almost exclu-sively in young children, and is characterized by thedestruction of nerve-cells in the brain and spinal cord, es-pecially in the anterior horns of gray matter. Since 1907 epidemics of infantile paralysis have beenprevalent in Europe and the United States. Flexner andLewis in their epoch-making studies having proved it tobe an infectious and probably a contagious disease. The NERVOUS DISEASES 225 virus of infection most probably gains access to the centralnervous system through absorption from the mucousmembrane of the nose and throat, from whence it is carriedby the lymphatics through the cribriform plate of the. Fig. 64—Scissors gait in a girl two years old (Friihwald and Westcott). •ethmoid bone directly into the cranial cavity. The poisonis likewise thrown off from the same mucous membraneby a reversed process of elimination. Symptoms.—The paralysis comes on very child goes to bed well and the following morning he IS 226 DISEASES OF CHILDREN FOR NURSES cannot move his legs or, at times, his arms. Certaingroups of muscles in the upper and lower extremities areinvolved, chiefly the latter. The paralysis at first is wide-spread, but tends to improve up to a certain point, whereit remains stationary. The muscles affected atrophy, andthe usefulness of the limb is obtained by an overdevelop-ment of other muscles which perform the function of themuscles which have been destroyed to a limited degree. Fig. 65.—Spinal infantile paralysis in the stage of fully developed palsy. Three-year-old girl (F. Lange). Treatment.—The nose and throat, being the principa
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