Armstrong – Table of Contents

Medical Advisory Meeting, National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Hot Springs,^
Virginia, April 1949. Courtesy of Mary Emma Armstrong.
In 1948, Armstrong was a member of the Committee on Nomenclature of the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (32). The other members of the Committee
were David Bodian, Thomas Francis, Jr., Albert B. Sabin and John R. Paul. They
discussed a “Proposed Provisional Definition of Poliomyelitis” as a culmination of
presentations to previous meetings on the same subject. They presented this discussion on
July 14, 1948 to the First International Conference on Poliomyelitis held in New York
City. The purpose of the presentation was to apply restrictions to the use of the term
“poliomyelitis virus” as opposed to the terms “encephalomyelitis” or “encephalitis” virus
that were used primarily to designate those viral illnesses that had been discovered in