Saturday, June 9, 1917
The last thing New York State needs with the nation at war is a repeat of the polio epidemic that killed thousands last summer. While “No cure for this dread disease has been found,” today’s Saratogian shares some tips for limiting its spread.
A committee of medical experts has just issued a report on last year’s epidemic. “No certain way has been discovered of preventing the permanent crippling of the patients,” an editorial writer notes, “though improved methods of treatment now dive the sufferers a better chance of recovery and leave most of them less extremely disabled than they would have been formerly.”
Four Saratoga County children died of poliomyelitis, better known as infantile paralysis, during the 1916 epidemic. The chief responsibility for preventing another epidemic lies with parents.
The expert committee has determined that polio spreads by direct personal contact with an infected person. According to their report, “Slight and non-paralytic cases are the most frequent sources of infection. As these cases arouse no suspicion, others come more in contact with them.”
“Keep a healthy child away from children who have the disease, and they are safe,” the editorial writer concludes, “All parents are urged to watch their own children carefully, and at the first sign of sickness shut them up from their playmates, including their own brothers and sisters, and call a doctor.
“The method advised is the safest and wisest course in the case of all communicable diseases. If faithfully followed it will check all epidemics, saving much sickness and many lives in every community.”
Recruitment
“There was a continued lull in recruiting at the armory today,” The Saratogian reports, even though Saratoga County’s Company L of the Second New York Infantry regiment still needs eight more men to reach its full war strength of 150 men.
No one has visited the company recruiting office in Saratoga Springs today as of press time for the evening paper. Applications have fallen off since the national day of draft registration on June 5.
Many who do apply for Company L prove physically unfit. Two men who volunteered yesterday, Geore Beebe and Thomas Browne, have been rejected after flunking their physical examinations.
Despite the slowdown, recruiting officers remain confident that Company L will get its men “within the next few days, as it is necessary to secure the full quota of enlisted men at once.”
WHAT’S HAPPENING
The Six Neapolitians, a “Great Spectacular Grand Opera Company,” headline the live vaudeville program at the Broadway Theatre tonight.” The other acts are Monsieur Herbert, “the Musical Waiter,” and “Queen of Aerialists” Martha Mott.