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ACUTE POLIOMYELITIS.
Acute Poliomyelitis is a notifiable infectious disease of the
central nervous system. It has long been known under the popular
term of " infantile paralysis "—a misleading name ; for the disease
may occur in adults, and paralysis does not always occur.
Although it is compulsorily notifiable, its incidence is to a
great extent conjectural, as it is very difficult (in the majority of
cases impossible) to recognise until paralysis occurs. The cases
actually notified therefore represent only the persons suffering
from recognisable paralysis, and not the number of persons notified.
There is no disease which has given rise to so many dogmatic
statements subsequently proved to be false, and it is generally