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"A Grim Terror More Menacing, More Sinister Than Death Itself" 
Physicians, Poliomyelitis and the Popular Press in Early 20th-Century Ontario

By Christopher J. Rutty

MA Thesis
Department of History
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada
Supervisor: J.T.H. Connor
Defended August 1990

© 1990 Christopher J. Rutty

Photocopies of this Thesis (double-sided, cirlox bound) are available for $35, postage included, from the address below.

ABSTRACT
In the industrialized world, prior to the advent of the Salk vaccine in the mid-1950s, poliomyelitis was an epidemic disease which presented an increasingly serious and dramatic challenge to both medical science and society at large. Indeed. it was this dramatic element which set polio apart from other more deadly infectious diseases. This thesis argues that this public drama, actively generated by the popular press, played a significant role in influencing how polio was medically understood and managed.

This study of poliomyelitis in Ontario focuses on the Toronto and London regions during epidemic "polio seasons" between 1937 and 1953. Canadian medical journals, popular magazines, and the newspapers of both cities from this period are the principal sources examined. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first half explores the medical understanding of polio in terms of its epidemiology and the specific preventive methods employed against it. The second half examines the context of polio in the popular press, the popular understanding of its cause, and finally, the way the popular press described and influenced the specific medical treatments that were utilized against polio.

The lack of effective medical methods to prevent and control polio, despite well-funded research, the intense public fears and anxieties the disease generated, its potential life-long crippling effects, and its escalating incidence, brought increasing media attention to the problem of polio. This dramatic exposure of the medical limitations against polio heightened the pressure on doctors to respond effectively. However, medical understanding of the disease was erroneous through most of this period, based largely on artificial laboratory conditions. The newspaper coverage of polio highlights the medical confusion over the proper public health response and demonstrates how such public pressures forced the premature use of three specific preventive treatments: convalescent serum, nasal sprays, and gamma globuiin serum.

By the 1950s, the public media had become a major force in Canadian society. The particular story of poliomyelitis in Ontario emphasizes this new twentieth-century reality. Science and medicine could no longer remain isolated from public view. Although public scrutiny into the laboratory clearly forced a sacrifice of scientific integrity to satisfy immediate popular demands for practical action, such publicity also forced scientists to constantly reexamine previous ideas and ultimately remain faithful to the scientific method. This dynamic process played a large role in determining how polio was approached, managed, and finally conquered.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF APPENDICES.

INTRODUCTION
Endnototes

PART ONE: MEDICAL SCIENCE AND MEDICAL DESPERATION

CHAPTER I: GENERAL HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Endnotes

CHAPTER II: CANADIAN MEDICAL UNDERSTANDING OF POLIO: THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL MYSTERY
Endnotes.

CHAPTER III: THE CANADIAN MEDICAL RESPONSE TO POLIO: SERUMS, SPRAYS AND SCIENCE
i) Convalescent Serum
ii) Nasal Sprays
iii) Gamma Globulin
Endnotes

PART TWO: POPULAR HOPES AND PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS: POLIO EPIDEMICS IN ONTARIO, 1937-1953

CHAPTER IV: THE POPULAR CONTEXT
Endnotes

CHAPTER V: THE POPULAR CAUSE
Endnotes

CHAPTER VI: THE POPULAR CURES
i) Convalescent Serum
ii) Nasal Sprays
iii) Gamma Globulin
Endnotes

CONCLUSIONS
Endnotes

APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
VITA


 
Christopher J. Rutty, Ph.D.
HEALTH HERITAGE RESEARCH SERVICES
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