Guano (from the Peruvian huano meaning dung) is the partially decomposed and dry excrement of sea-birds. Since the 19th century it has been highly prized as a manure, and led to the claims and disputes of the many tiny islands and atolls in the Pacific Ocean (such as the Gilbert Islands, Line Islands etc) as the western countries sought to lay sole claim to the collection of the vast tons of guano deposited on these islands by their bird populations.
The name guano has also been extended to accumulations of a similar kind from land birds, and even from bats in caverns. Owing to the fact that rain washes such deposits away, great accumulations of guano exist principally in hot and dry tropical regions. The most important of all were the deposits on the Chincha Islands off the coast of Peru, which yielded a considerable revenue to the country, but were quite exhausted by 1900. From 1853 to 1872 about 8,000,000 tons were obtained from these islands. The guano which was found there was from 60 to 80 or 100 feet (as much as 30 meters) in thickness, and was entirely due to the droppings, accumulated for many ages, of the innumerable sea-birds which make these islands their resting-place and breeding-ground. Other deposits of less extent have from time to time been found, and Peru remained the chief source of supply, its deposits being worked under the Chilian government.
Guano varies extremely in composition, but it may be roughly divided into nitrogenous and phosphatic. The first of these contains about 21 per cent of ammonia. This is the case with the Peruvian variety, which contains almost all the inorganic matter required by a plant, and that in a highly available form, so that it is looked upon as one of the best of all fertilizing agents for different crops. Its use as a manure was known to the native Peruvians centuries ago, but no attention was paid to the accounts by modern travellers of its wonderful efficacy until Von Humboldt brought some to Europe and had it analysed. It began to be brought to Europe about 1846. It was used raw or in its natural state, but most of the phosphatic guanos (some of which hardly deserve the name of guano) required to be dissolved by sulphuric acid before using. There were also manures known fish guano, prepared from fish or fish refuse, flesh guano, blood guano, etcc. Large quantities of fish guano were made in the United States from the menhaden, the oil being first extracted. Research Guano
Cocoa (Cacao) is a small tree (Theobroma cacao) of the family Sterculiaceae, natural order Byttneriaceae native to tropical America. The tree is five to six metres high and much cultivated in the tropics of both hemispheres, especially in the West Indian Islands, Central and South America and Africa. The leaves are about 10 cm in length, smooth but not glossy, and of a dull-green colour; the flowers are saffron-coloured, and very beautiful.
The fruit consists of pointed, oval, ribbed pods 15 to 25 cm long. The cultivated trees bear fruit all the year round, but the gathering is chiefly in June and December. The pods are removed by knives attached to the ends of poles. The pods are at first green, but as they ripen they change to a fine bluish-red, or almost purple colour, and in some varieties to a yellow or lemon colour. Each pod encloses 50 or more seeds in a white, sweetish pulp; and the seeds or 'beans' have each a parchment-like covering enclosing a whitish pulp. These are very nutritive, containing 50 per cent of fat, are of an agreeable flavour, and used, both in their fresh state and when dried, as an article of diet. Cocoa and chocolate are made from them, the former being a. powder obtained by grinding
the seeds, and often mixed with other substances when prepared for sale, the latter being this powder mixed with sugar and various flavouring matters and formed into solid cakes. The seeds when roasted and divested of their husks and crushed are known as cocoa nibs. The seeds yield also an oil called butter of cacao, used in pomatum and for making candles, soap, etc.
The best quality cocoa comes from Venezuela, Ecuador, the Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad and Greanada) and Madagascar. This accounts for about two percent of the cocoa produced, the remaining 98 per cent is low grade cocoa lacking aroma and quality, and which is used in 99.99 per cent of commercial chocolate. Research Cocoa
The hop (Humulus Lupulus) is a native British and European plant of the hemp family Cannabiaceae, natural order Urticaceae. The root is perennial giving out several herbaceous, rough, twining stems with large lobed leaves. The the fertile flowers are green; the fruit is a catkin and the catkins are added to beer to give it its aromatic and bitter flavour. The young shoots are sometimes boiled and eaten like asparagus; the fibres of the old stems make good cords and were formerly used. The use of the hop catkins depends upon a peculiar bitter substance which they contain, called lupulin, which is a yellow powder, containing a bitter principle and a volatile oil. The lupulin constitutes from 10 to 12 per cent by weight of the catkin, and the bitter principle forms from 8 to 12 per cent of the lupulin. Having tonic, stomachic, and narcotic properties hops were often used medicinally. Pillows stuffed with hops are used to induce sleep. Research Hop
Anglo-Saxons is the name commonly given to the nation or people formed by the amalgamation of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who settled in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, the Anglo-Saxons being simply the English people of the earlier period of English history. The tribes who were thus the ancestors of the bulk of the English-speaking nationalities came from north Germany, where they inhabited the parts about the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, and the first body of them who gained a footing in Britain are said to have landed in 449, and to have been led by Hengist and Horsa. From the preponderance of the Angles the whole country came to be called Engla-land, that is, the land of the Angles or English.
The whole Anglo-Saxon community was frequently spoken of as consisting of the eorls and the ceorls, or the nobles and common freemen. The former were the men of property and position, the latter were the small landholders, handicraftsmen, etc, who generally placed themselves under the protection of some nobleman, who was hence termed their hlaford or lord. Besides these there was the class of the serfs or slaves (theowas), who might be either born slaves or freemen who had forfeited their liberty by their crimes, or whom poverty or the fortune of war had brought into this position. They served as agricultural labourers on their masters' estates, and were merechattels, as absolutely the property of their master as his cattle.
The king (cyning, cyng) was at the head of the state; he was the highest of the nobles and the chief magistrate. He was not looked upon as ruling by any divine right, but by the will of the people, as represented by the witan (wise men) or great council of the nation. The new king was not always the direct and nearest heir of the late king, but one of the royal family whose abilities and character recommended him for the office. He had the right of maintaining a standing army of household troops, the duty of calling together the witan, and of laying before them public measures, with certain distinctions of dress, dwelling, etc, all his privileges being possessed and exercised by the advice and consent of the witenagemot or parliament (literally meaning meeting of the wise). Next in rank and dignity to the king were the ealdormen, who were the chief witan or counsellors, and without whose assent laws could not be made, altered, or abrogated. They were at the head of the administration of justice in the shires, possessing both judicial and executive authority, and had as their officers the scir-gerefan or sheriffs. The ealdormen led the fyrd or armed force of the county, and the ealdorman, as such, held possession of certain lands attached to the office, and was entitled to a share of fines and other moneys levied for the king's use and passing through his hands. The whole executive government may be considered as a great aristocratical association, of which the ealdormen were the members, and the king little more than the president. The ealdorman and the king were both surrounded by a number of followers called thegnas or thanes, who were bound by close ties to their superior. The king's thanes were the higher in rank, they possessed a certain quantity of land, smaller in amount than that of an ealdorman, and they filled offices connected with the personal service of the king or with the administration of justice. The scir-gerefa (shire-reeve or sheriff) was also
important functionary. He presided at the county-court along with the ealdorman and bishop, or alone in their absence; and he had to carry out the decisions of the court, levy fines, collect taxes, etc. The shires were divided into hundreds and tithings, the latter consisting of ten heads of families, who were jointly responsible to the state for the good conduct of any member of their body. Eor the trial and settlement of minor causes there was a hundred court held once a month. The place of the modern parliament was held by the witena-gemot. Its members, who were not elected, comprised the gethelings or princes of the blood royal, the bishops and abbots, the ealdormen, the thanes, the sheriffs, etc.
One of the peculiar features of Anglo-Saxon society was the wergyld, which was established for the settling of feuds. A sum, paid either in kind or in money, was placed upon the life of every freeman, according to his rank in the state, his birth, or his office. A corresponding sum was settled for every wound that could be inflicted upon his person; for nearly every injury that could be done to his civil rights, his honour, or his domestic peace, etc. From the operation of this principle no one from king to peasant was exempt.
Agriculture, including especially the raising of cattle, sheep, and swine, was the chief occupation of the Anglo-Saxons. Gardens and orchards are frequently mentioned, and vineyards were common in the southern counties. The forests were extensive, and valuable both from the mast they produced for the swine, and from the beasts of the chase which they harboured. Hunting was a favourite recreation among the higher ranks, both lay and clerical. Fishing was largely carried on, herrings and salmon being the principal fish caught; and the Anglo-Saxon whaling vessels used to go as far as Iceland. The manufactures were naturally of small moment. Iron was made to some extent, and some cloth, and salt works were numerous. In embroidery and working in gold the English were famous over Europe. There was a considerable trade at London, which was frequented by Normans, French, Flemings, and the merchants of the Hanse towns. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers were notorious for their excess in eating and drinking, and in this respect formed a strong contrast to the Norman conquerors. Ale, mead, and cider were the common beverages, wine being limited to the higher classes. Pork and eels were favourite articles of food. The houses were rude structures, but were often richly furnished and hung with fine tapestry. The dress of the people was loose and flowing, composed chiefly of linen, and often adorned with embroidery. The men wore their hair long and flowing over their shoulders. Christianity was introduced among the Anglo-Saxons in the end of the sixth century by St Augustine, who was sent by Pope Gregory the Great, and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Kent, then under King Ethelred, was the first place where it took root, and thence it soon spread over the rest of the country. The Anglo-Saxon Church long remained independent of Rome, notwithstanding the continual efforts of the popes to bring it under their power. It was not until the tenth century that this result was
t about by Dunstan. Many Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics were distinguished for learning and ability, but the VenerableBede holds the first place.
The Anglo-Saxon language, which is simply the earliest form of English, claims kinship with Dutch, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and German, especially with the Low German dialects (spoken in North Germany). It was not called Anglo-Saxon by those who spoke it, but Englisc (English), and many condemn the former name as a misnomer. The existing remains of Anglo-Saxon literature show different dialects, of which the northern and the southern were the principal. The former was the first to be cultivated as a literary language, but afterwards it was supplanted in this respect by the southern or that of Wessex. It is in the latter that the principal Anglo-Saxon works are written. The Anglo-Saxon alphabet was substantially the same as that which we still use, except that some of the letters were different in form, while it had two characters either of which represented the sounds of th in thy and in thing. Nouns and adjectives are declined much as in German or in Latin. The pronouns of the first and second person had a dual number, 'we tw' or 'us two' and 'you two', besides the plural for more than two. The infinitive of the verb is in -am, the participle in -ende, and there is a gerund somewhat similar in its usage to the Latingerund. The verb had four moods - indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and infinitive, but only two tenses, the present (often used as a future) and the past. Other tenses and the passive voice were formed by auxiliary verbs. Anglo-Saxon words terminated in a vowel much more frequently than the modern English, and altogether the language is so different that it has to be learned quite like a foreign tongue. Yet notwithstanding the large number of words of Latin or French origin that our language now contains, and the changes it has undergone, its framework, so to speak, is still Anglo-Saxon. Many chapters of the New Testament do not contain more than four per cent of non-Teutonic words, and as a whole it averages perhaps six or seven.
The existing remains of Anglo-Saxon literature include compositions in prose and poetry, some of which must be referred to a very early period, one or two perhaps to a time before the Angles and Saxons emigrated to England. The most important Anglo-Saxon poem is that called Beowulf, after its hero, extending to more than 6000 lines. Beowulf is a Scandinavian prince, who slays a fiendish cannibal, after encountering supernatural perils, and is at last slain in a contest with a frightful dragon. Its scene appears to be laid entirely in Scandinavia. Its date is uncertain; parts of it may have been brought over at the emigration from Germany, though in its present form it is much later than this. The poetical remains include a number of religious poems, or poems on sacred themes; ecclesiastical narratives, as lives of saints and versified chronicles; psalms and hymns; secular lyrics; allegories, gnomes, riddles, etc. The religious class of poems was the largest, and of these Caedmon's (about 660) are the most remarkable. His poems consist of loose versions of considerable portions of the Biblehistory, and treat of the creation, the temptation, the fall, the exodus of the Israelites, the story of Daniel, the incarnation, and the harrowing of hell, or release of the ransomed souls by Christ. Other most interesting poems are those ascribed to Cynewulf, the Christ, Elene, and Juliana, the subjects respectively being Christ, the finding of the cross by the EmpressHelena, and the life of Juliana. Rhyme was little used in Anglo-Saxon poetry, alliteration being employed instead, as in the older northern poetry generally. The style of the poetry is highly elliptical, and it is full of harsh inversions and obscure metaphors.
The Anglo-Saxon prose remains consist of translations of portions of the Bible, homilies, philosophical writings, history, biography, laws, leases, charters, popular treatises on science and medicine, grammars, etc. Many of these were translations from the Latin. The Anglo-Saxon versions of the Gospels, next to the Moeso-Gothic, are the earliest scriptural translations in any modern language. The Psalms are said to have been translated by Bishop Aldhelm (who died in 709), and also under Alfred's direction; and the Gospel of St John by Bede; but it is not known who were the authors of the extant versions. A translation of the first seven books of the Bible is believed to have been the work of Aelfric, who was Abbot of Ensham and lived in the beginning of the eleventh century. We have also eighty homilies from his pen, several theological treatises, a Latingrammar, etc. King Alfred was a diligent author, besides being a translator of Latin works. We have under his name translations of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophise, the Universal History of Orosius, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, the Pastoral Care of Gregory the Great, etc. The most valuable to us of the Anglo-Saxon prose writings is the Saxon Chronicle, as it is called, a collection of annals recording important events in the history of the country, and compiled in different religious houses. The latest text comes down to 1154. A considerable body of laws remains, as well as a large number of charters. Research Anglo-Saxons
Frank Winfield Woolworth was an American trader who started the 'five and ten cent stores' which grew into the world famous 'F.W. Woolworth' chain of stores. Research F.W. Woolworth
Normal red blood cells are of four main groups in relation to their behaviour when mixed with bloodplasma (or serum) of another individual. Similarly the plasma (and serum) of each individual belongs to one of four groups. If cells of one group meet plasma of an 'incompatible' group, the cells stick together in blocks. These clumps obstruct blood vessels and may cause death. The interaction of the incompatible cells and plasma is called 'agglutination'. The provocative substance in the cells is called the agglutlnogen, while the defensive substance in the plasma is the agglutinin. A similar mechanism develops in relation to our immunity to infections by certain bacteria and viruses. In blood transfusion, the amount of plasma administered is small in relation to the large amount of plasma in the recipient's circulation. On the other hand, even a small quantity of cells given to a patient whose plasma will not tolerate that particular type of cell, will lead to clumping of the donor's cells in the recipient's blood vessels. The importance therefore lies in the cells of the donor and the plasma of the recipient.l Plasma and serum for this purpose are identical and the serum obtained when a small quantity of blood is allowed to clot is used for testing against the donor's red cells. In order to determine a patient's blood group, a small quantity of blood is obtained from a finger or ear prick and immediately mixed with citrate to prevent clotting; the cells are then tested against special serum of known groups. To obtain the patient's serum for cross-matching, 5 ml of blood is taken, by vein puncture, and allowed to clot.
The four common groups have been numbered variously. The Moss classification I, II, III, and IV was used extensively until the adoption of the International A, B, O classification, which describes the groups according to the presence or absence of the specific cell factors, which are of two types, A and B. Thus we have four blood groups in the international system. In the first of these, both cell factors are present but no serum factors. The serum factors are called anti-A and anti-B, and obviously the cellfactor A and the serum factor anti-A could not exist in the same person. The second group contains cellfactor A and serum factor anti-B. The third group contains cellfactor B with serum factor anti-A, and the fourth group contains neither cellfactor but both serum factors. The fourth group could therefore be given to any of the other groups and the cells, having no clumping factors, would be tolerated in any recipient. On the other hand, the first group with both cell factors could not be given to any other group. The terms universal donor, Group O (MossIV), and universal recipient, Group AB (MossI), were used to amplify the earlier grouping system. Transfusion with the wrong group of blood is usually fatal so that very great care has to be taken in the determination of the blood group, both of donor and recipient.
Since the 1950s hitherto unexplained incompatability was found to be due to the presence of other factors than the A, B, O, agglutinogens. The most important of these is the rhesus cellfactor. Certain monkeys (Rhesus species) have this factor naturally, but it is present in only 85 per cent of white people in England and America. The other 15 per cent - Rh negative - may become sensitized to Rh positive cells by repeated transfusion of Rh positive blood. A rhesus negative mother whose husband is ph positive may produce an Rh positive baby. A battle occurs between the unborn baby's cells and the mother's plasma. The baby may die before birth (miscarriage) or be born with very severe anaemia and jaundice. If born alive, the baby is treated by complete replacement of its blood to get rid of the mother' s sensitized Rh negative plasma. This is 'exsanguination-transfusion'. During the 1950s blood grouping in preparation for transfusion became a complex and very responsible task. In most hospitals it is undertaken by specialists - perhaps a pathologist or transfusion officer. During the 1980s as HIV paranoia spread, even more testing started to be done. Research Blood Groups
Encephalitis Lethargica or sleepy sickness is a disease of comparatively late recognition. It has been known in Europe, America and Great Britain since about 1916. The virus is unknown, but the disease is characteristic, causing fever, lethargy and paralysis of the eyemuscles with double vision. Infection probably takes place through the mouth and nose. Various non-typical forms of the disease also occur. The onset is often gradual and insidious, but sometimes acute delirium may be the first symptom. The condition often resembles influenza in the early stages, and hiccough is a common symptom. In severe cases mania or delirium is seen, or lethargy and coma; muscular pains, rigidity of the limbs, or convulsions may develop. Later, in cases which recover, tremors and purposeless movements may indicate the true condition and the patient's face becomes mask-like and expressionless ('Parkinsonism'). A drooping posture and the shuffling gait are characteristic, The diagnosis is often difficult; about 33 per cent. of cases are fatal. Complete
recovery is rare, most cases ending in chronic invalidism, and the disease often runs on for many months. There is no specific treatment. Isolation and careful nursing are essential. Hyoscine, Artane and Benadryl relieve tremors, and stiffness ollimbs. Research Encephalitis Lethargica
Opium is the dried, milky juice (latex) of unripe capsules of the white poppy also known as the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), a plant probably indigenous in the south of Europe and western Asia, but now so widely cultivated that its original habitat is uncertain.
The medicinal properties of the juice have been recognized from a very early period. It was known to Theophrastus and appears in his time to have consisted of an extract of the whole plant, since Dioscorides about 77 AD draws a distinction between different types of opium, one of which he describes as an extract of the entireherb, and the more active form derived from the capsules alone. From the 1st to the 12th century the opium of Asia Minor appears to have been the only kind known in commerce. In the 13th century opium thebaicum is mentioned by Simon Januensis, physician to Pope Nicholas IV.
In the 16th century opium is mentioned by Pyres in 1516 as a production of the kingdom of Cous (Kuch Behar, south-west of Bhutan) in Bengal and of Malwa. Its introduction into India appears to have been connected with the spread of Islam. The opium monopoly was the property of the Great Mogul and was regularly sold. In the 17th century Kaempfer describes the various kinds of opium prepared in Persia, and states that the best sorts were flavoured with spices and called theriaka. These preparations were held in great esteem during the Middle Ages, and probably supplied to a large extent the place of the pure drug.
Opium is said to have been introduced into China, probably by the Arabs around 1280-1295, during the reign of Taitsu, and its use seems to have temporarily ceased in 1368. It appears to have been commonly used in that country as a medicine before the trade with India started. In a Chinese herbal compiled prior to the 17th century both the plant and its inspissated juice are described, together with the mode of collecting it, and in the General History of the Southern Provinces of Yunnan, revised and republished in 1736, opium is noticed as a common product up to this date, however, it was imported in comparatively small quantity by the Chinese solely as a remedy for dysentery, diarrhoea, and fevers, and was usually brought from India by junks as a return cargo.
In 1757 the monopoly of opium cultivation passed into the hands of the East India Company through the victory of Clive at Plassey. Up to 1773 the trade with China had been in the hands of the Portuguese, but the quantity annually exported to that country rarely exceeded 200 chests. In that year the East India Company took the trade under their own charge, and in 1776 the annual export reached 1000 chests, and 4054 chests in 1790. Although the importation was forbidden by the Chinese emperor Keaking in 1796, and opium-smoking punished with severe penalties, which were ultimately increased to transportation and death, the trade continued and had increased during 1820-1830 to 16,877 chests per annum. In 1839 a proclamation was issued threatening hostile measures if the English opium ships serving as depots were not sent away. The demand for removal not being complied with, 20,291 chests of opium (of 149.3 Ib each), valued at 2,000,000 pounds sterling, were destroyed by the Chinese commissioner Lin; but still the British sought to smuggle cargoes on shore, and some outrages committed on both sides led to an open war, which was ended by the treaty of Nanking in 1842. From that time until the end of the 19th century, in spite of the remonstrances of the Chinese Government, the exportation of opium from India to China continued, having increased from 52,925 piculs (of 133.3 Ib) in 1850 to 96,839 piculs in 1880. It appears to be certain, however, that, while the court of Peking was endeavouring to suppress the foreign trade in opium from 1796 to 1840, it did not or could not put a stop to the home cultivation of the drug, since a Chinese censor in 1830 represented to the throne that the poppy was grown over one-half of the province of Chekeang, and in 1836 another, Cho Tsun, stated that the annual produce of opium in Yunnan could not be less than several thousand piculs.
In 1885 it was estimated that south-western China, including Szechuen, produced not less than 224,000 piculs, while the entire import from India did not exceed 100,000 piculs. Opium was then produced in nine out of the eighteen provinces of China. The comparative cheapness of the Chinese opium, the lighter duties levied upon it, and the increasing care taken in its cultivation were enabling it to compete successfully with the Indian drug even in eastern China, where, however, it was hitherto chiefly used to mix with and cheapen the foreign article.
The amount of opium imported into Great Britain in 1861, 1871, and 1881 was 284,005, 591,466, and 793,146 lbs respectively, and the exports for the same years 290,120, 307,399, and 401,883 lb.
The method of cultivationa nd manufacture varies between countries, but generally the opium poppy is cultivated from seeds sown between November and March, and successive crops are ready from May to July. The flowers are white or purplish, there being different varieties of opium poppies; and a few days after the petals have fallen, when the capsules are about 25 mm. in diameter, they are cut round the middle with a knife, and left overnight for the juice to flow out and harden. After further drying on poppy leaves, the dark, plastic masses are made into lumps for sale.
Opium is bitter, and has a characteristic smell. Its properties depend upon the nineteen or twenty alkaloids it contains. The chief of these are: Morphine (9 per cent); narcotine (5 per cent); papaverine (0.8 per cent) ; thebaine (0.4 per cent); codeine or methylmorphine (0.3 per cent); narceine (0,2 per cent.). Morphine, the most important alkaloid, is separated from the others by extracting the opium with hot water, and boiling the extract with milk of lime. Alcoholic tincture of opium is known as laudanum. It contains about 0.75 per cent, of morphine.
Opium is used medicinally, mainly to relieve pain and to produce sleep, and for this purpose is best given hypodermically as morphine. It is also employed to relieve vomiting and to stop diarrhoea, to lessen distressing coughing, to stop bleeding in the stomach and intestines; while it is valuable in heart disease, diabetes, in cystitis and other inflammatory conditions, for haemoptysis, and, as Dover's powder, to cause perspiration in, for instance, common cold.
A conference of the Powers at the Hague in January 1912, drew up a convention of twenty-five articles by which they agreed to control the supply of and gradually suppress the manufacture of opium. Research Opium
Polio (properly poliomyelitis, and also known as infantile paralysis) is caused by infection of the nervous system by a virus which gains entry through the nasopharynx and breeds in the intestinal mucous lining. It is expelled in the faeces. The bloodstream carries the disease to the nervous system. There the virus attacks the cells lying in the grey matter of the brain and spinal cord, and in a case of very severe infection certain of these nerve cells may be entirely destroyed. This affection of the nerve cells leads to the characteristic symptom of the disease, namely muscular paralysis. A striking feature of the disease is its occurrence in young children, especially in those between the ages of two and four years. It may occur also in adolescence and early adult Life, but is rare after middle age. During an epidemic the virus may attack many people without giving rise to actual paralysis in any part of the body, and it has been found that over 50 per cent of the adult population have the special antibodies against the virus in the blood, showing that they have at some time suffered from a mild or unrecognised attack.
Confirmation of these facts was found in an American epidemic in the 1950s. Amongst twenty-two contacts of a case of infantile paralysis, fourteen were found to have the virus in the faeces. Fourteen of the twenty-two cases developed slight fever, but only one became paralysed. The disease is spread by humancarriers of the virus, who may or may not be ill with the disease. The secretions of the nose and throat are infective during the first ten days of the illness, and spread of the disease mainly takes place from one person to another by what is known as 'droplet infection' (as in sneezing, coughing, talking, etc.), and by the common use of articles recently contaminated by these secretions. The virus may be present also in the faeces of a patient up to three months after his apparent recovery.
The disease may also be spread by infected water, milk or fruit, either by direct handling, or by flies carrying infection from lavatories or sewage. The disease is much more prevalent during the hotter months of the summer, and in the European climate it reaches its maximum frequency in August and September. The incubation period varies between six and ten days, the average being nine days. Infantile paralysis begins suddenly with fever lasting from one to five days, the temperature rising to 102 or 104 degrees. The child is usually flushed and drowsy, but may be very irritable, and vomiting and convulsions may occur. There is headache, with pain in the neck and back, and tenderness of the limbs. The symptoms at this stage are similar to those seen in many other acuteinfectious diseases, though special significance should be attached to severe pains in the limbs and tenderness of the muscles. In one to five days the characteristic signs of paralysis appear in one or more groups, of muscles. In older children and adults the paralysis is usually present within twenty-four hours of the onset. It develops rapidly and appears to have its maximum limit of distribution from the moment it appears. It is, in fact, usually much more widespread at the onset than it is destined to be permanently.
At first all four limbs may appear to be completely helpless, but after some days a rapid recovery occurs from much of the paralysis, so that only one limb may be finally affected. The narrowing down of the initial paralysis begins to appear after the end of the first week, and any muscle which is going to recover its power will have done so before the end of the first month. The muscles which are permanently paralysed become atrophied, or wasted, and in the course of time they tend to become contracted or shortened. This shortening may lead to considerable deformity of the part unless it is prevented by suitable treatment. The paralysis may affect any of the muscles of the body, but those of the leg are far more commonly involved than any others. Research Polio
During the American Civil War, Helena, Montana was fortified and occupied by 4500 Federals under Prentiss in 1863. The Confederates, Holmes, Price and Marmaduke, assaulted this position on July the 4th with 8000 soldiers. Charge after charge was made, but all proved ineffectual. The National batteries inflicted terrible losses upon the assaulting troops. Holmes ordered a retreat about noon, having lost fully twenty per cent of his army. Research Assault on Helena
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Guano
