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DIAGNOSIS OF MOUTH AFFECTIONS, I79

chloride of lime, chloride of alumina, oxalic acid, chloride of soda,
sulphite of soda, combined with boracic acid, cyanide of potassium,
tartaric acid in combination with chloride of lime, chloride of
zinc, also alum in combination with liq. sodae chlorinatae, may be
employed to improve their appearance, also use of nitrous oxide
in combination with chloride of sodium, also peroxide of hy-
drogen, or pyrozone.
Infantile Paralysis during the Period of Teething.—Infantile
paralysis, or poliomyelitis, is an obscure affection peculiar to a
certain season, which has given to it at the hands of some the
name of " warm weather spinal disease." It comes on suddenly,
but seldom after the age of four years. According to Gowers,
of all cases under ten years, three-fifths occur in the first two
years of life ; and he claims that a considerable number of cases
are congenital. There is usually a febrile initial stage followed
by the sudden onset of paralysis in one leg or arm. In more than
half the cases the lower limbs are affected ; of the remainder, the
majority represent implications of the arms, notably the deltoid
muscles, and legs, or, perhaps, arm and leg, and very seldom the
upper extremity alone. The cause of infantile paralysis is gen-
erally assigned to teething, cold or damp, injuries to the spine,
measles, scarlatina, malarial or other fevers, convulsions or con-
cussion. Dr. Rot, at the Fourth Prussian Congress, declared
that heredity is the only etiological factor that has been proven.
*' The primary cause of the affection must be sought for in" the
modifications of that part of the fecundated ovum which enters
into the formation of the nervous system." During the period
of dentition, children are liable to disorders of the cerebro-
spinal system, and as from such causes we find convulsions the
cause of the death of numberless infants seemingly robust, so we
see the same cause producing paralysis. There is loss of heat
and atrophy in the affected limbs, and the latter may be a feature
of the disease dependent upon the morbid changes in the nerve-
centres. The atrophy extends to the bony system, the nutrition
of which is involved; and it is evident that the atrophic degener-
ation, if not inherent, is a real sequence of inflammatory process
in the spinal cord.