Armstrong – Table of Contents

influential in poliomyelitis affairs because of his perceived knowledge of science,
medicine and his widespread circle of acquaintances in medical research. The Committee
began making grants to medical investigators in May 1935. Following the tragic failures
and events of the Brodie-Park and Kolmer vaccines, a desperate public was ready for any
new, safe, hopefully effective approach to stop the ravages of the regularly recurring,
mysterious epidemics.
From a theoretical standpoint for which there were published and established
experimental data, attempts to prevent poliomyelitis infection by blocking the entrance of
the virus through the nose with a chemical barrier seemed to be a reasonable and safe
approach. As noted previously, it was not until later that the fecal-oral route was
recognized as the major portal of entry of poliovirus into the body setting up infection
initially in the alimentary tract. Simon Flexner, at the Rockefeller Institute (see above) in
early polio investigation, was able to infect monkeys through the nose, observe
disappearance and then reappearance of infectious virus in the nose about five days later.
Other investigators at the Rockefeller Institute, including Peter Olitsky, Albert Sabin and
Herald Cox demonstrated chemical blockade using a different virus and laboratory host.
Working with the equine encephalitis virus in the mid-1930s, they were able to infect
white mice by dropping the virus into the nose. They found that they could prevent
infection by first instilling tannic acid into the nose (6). At Stanford University, Dr.
Edwin W. Schultz (7), generously funded by the Committee, was able to block polio
from infecting monkeys by first instilling a solution of astringent alum (aluminum
sulfate) into their noses. He carried the studies an additional step forward. He opened the
skulls of the monkeys, and, under direct vision, he severed completely both olfactory