The treatment of infantile paralysis / by Robert W. Lovett.

  • Lovett, Robert W. (Robert Williamson), 1859-1924.
Date:
[1916], ©1916
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of infantile paralysis / by Robert W. Lovett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE The great prevalence of infantile paralysis in America since 1907 has not only directed the attention of the medical pro¬ fession to the disease in a very practical way, but has led to a rapid advance in our knowledge of the affection and of its treat¬ ment. Indeed so rapid has been this progress, particularly on the therapeutic side, that it has not had time to find its way into text-books, but exists almost wholly in the fugitive period¬ ical literature. It is to meet the situation just described that this book has been written and it is concerned wholly with treatment except for a short introductory chapter dealing with other aspects of the disease in their bearing on treatment. This limitation was adopted because my experience has been chiefly in this depart¬ ment and because conditions are not yet sufficiently settled with regard to pathology, etiology, transmission, etc., to make it possible to write a book with any promise of permanence which should deal with the whole subject. The aim has been to present a practical, plain and perhaps rather elementary statement of the various therapeutic meas¬ ures which I believe to be the soundest and best, and although I have not hesitated to quote from the work of others the per¬ sonal point of view has been emphasized. It has seemed best to discuss the question of the operative treatment of the affection in a comprehensive way but not to attempt to write an operative surgery. In this section my personal experience is responsible for my comments on the rela¬ tive value of the different operations. It has seemed desirable also to dwell at some length on the subject of muscle training because all experienced surgeons are today agreed that the operative treatment of infantile paralysis should not be undertaken until at least two years after the onset and during these two years, when the most rapid progress is to