This day in The Record in 1916
Wednesday, July 26, 1916
Tests on Beatrice Boylan today are inconclusive, but a state health official believes that the seventeen year old First Street resident is the first case of polio in Troy this summer.
Boylan was placed under quarantine yesterday by city health officer Dr. Calvin E. Nichols on the recommendation of family physician Dr. William Kirk Jr. Boylan is considered unusually old for polio, which has stricken mostly small children during the current New York State epidemic.
James F. Boylan, Beatrice’s father, reportedly doubts that his daughter is suffering from polio. Nevertheless, Dr. L. K. Shaw of Albany takes a sample of her spinal fluid for testing. His examination “failed to disclose germs of any kind,” The Record reports, but after a physical examination of the partially paralyzed girl Shaw concurs with Dr. Kirk’s diagnosis.
“The apparatus [Shaw] used is understood not to be powerful enough to discover the germs of the dread disease,” our reporter notes, “The fluid taken from her spine may be sent to the Bender laboratory at Albany for examination , where the extraordinary apparatus required for the purpose is available.”
Upstate New York has seen a wave of polio refugees from downstate as metropolitan families try to get their children out of the areas hit hardest by the disease. These refugees are meeting increased resistance from upstate municipalities, where officials fear that new arrivals from downstate may be carrying the polio virus.
Simon D. Hops is a thirteen year old recently arrived in Troy from Brooklyn. He appears in police court this morning to apply for shelter. His mother “could no longer keep him,” Hops explains, but a Troy family who had taken him in a few weeks ago is afraid to take him into their house. He has also been turned away by the local Humane Society.
“The health officers ascertained that he had come away from New York on the boat last night without the proper [medical] credentials and had not complied with the state restrictions in the matter, “our court reporter elaborates.
“The boy does not want to go back to New York but the health authorities will probably send him home to-night and at the same time take up the case with the New York officials. The boy appeared to be in good health but under the conditions no local institution would probably risk taking him in.”
Troy officials have posted quarantine cards outside the Boylan home. “The quarantine cards for infantile paralysis are green and are the same ones that were used when there was an epidemic of spotted fever in Troy several years ago,” our reporter notes.