Failure of Hypnotic and Convulsive Aents to Alter the Course of Experimental Poliomyelitis

Abstract

Conclusions

Neither the administration of narcotic doses of luminal nor the production of systemic shock by means of insulin or metrazol were capable of influencing the course of experimental poliomyelitis. Moreover, the extent and severity of the lesions in the spinal cord showed no significant difference between treated monkeys and untreated control animals. Even though essentially negative, the above results are considered important in demonstrating that propagation of the virus of poliomyelitis in the central nervous system is not affected by profound cytological and metabolic changes in the nerve tissue, as were produced by the methods employed in this work.