AN EPIDEMIC OF ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS: OCCURRING IN SALEM, VA., AND VICINITY

During the past summer there occurred in Salem, Va., and the adjacent country a small epidemic of anterior poliomyelitis. The first case developed June 2 and the last one reported to the Board of Health was August 10. Some time previous to this outbreak the weather had been intensely hot, while the prevailing humidity was high. After several cases had developed they were reported to the State Commissioner of Health, and he was asked if the disease was prevalent elsewhere in the state. Singularly enough, he reported that it was not reported from any other locality. Just why this town and the adjacent territory were visited by this epidemic we are entirely unable to explain, as the authorities do not class this as a contagious disease, and, so far as we are aware, there were no local conditions which might have produced this epidemic, outside of the intense heat and