Dictionary entry

Infantile paralysis

Webster's Dictionary 1913

In″fan‐tile pa‐ral″y‐sis. (Med.) An acute disease, almost exclusively infantile, characterized by inflammation of the anterior horns of the gray substance of the spinal cord. It is attended with febrile symptoms, motor paralysis, and muscular atrophy, often producing permanent deformities. Called also acute anterior poliomyelitis.