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Situated directly under the bluff on which the Medical Building is located, and in close proximity to the warm springs, are the TREATMENT POOLS. The glass enclosed pool was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Edsel B. Ford. The pools and their accessory buildings have provisions for physical therapy in warm water, and heliotherapy.

The Foundation has several houses and cottages which are used for the staff and a few small housekeeping cottages which are for rental to the families and friends of patients who may be visiting them.

There are a number of privately owned housekeeping cottages, several of which may be rented by visitors desiring that type of accommodation when making an extended stay at the Foundation.

Situated near Georgia Hall is THE PLAYHOUSE, donated by the Hon. Frank C. Walker and the late Michael E. Comerford, where motion pictures are shown three times a week, the films being contributed by the various motion picture companies. It is also used for amateur theatricals and general assemblies.

All of the buildings used by patients, including the cottages, are provided with ramps. There are no door sills. Hallways are furnished with guard-rails, and walls and pillars are splayed at the bottom as a protection against damage by wheel chairs. Doors are provided with metal bands so that wheel chairs can be pushed against them to open them. Rooms are equipped with various .hand-rails and other devices so that patients can move about easily. There are parking places for wheel chairs, and places where crutches can be left conveniently. Thus, many of the patients, by means of wheel chairs, move about the buildings and grounds entirely without the aid of an attendant.

Physical Therapy Post-Graduate School

THIS SCHOOL which will open at the Foundation in July, 1941, will furnish technical education to physiotherapy technicians in the care of poliomyelitis patients. Located at Warm Springs, it will provide a unique opportunity for the post-graduate student to observe and study those methods of treatment now in use with infantile paralysis patients. More important, perhaps, is the fact that it will serve as a research laboratory where new techniques can be developed to advance and improve the present knowledge in the field of after-care.

Here will come physiotherapists, some without any experience with infantile paralysis cases but all graduates of schools approved by the Council on Medical Education of The American Medical Association. The subjects offered will be those approved by the Council and they will be taught by a Director who is a qualified orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist.

This project has been made possible by a grant of funds from The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis whose medical advisers realized the soundness of such a program of education.

Thus will Warm Springs soon he able to send forth well-trained graduates for work in their home states, not only with infantile paralysis patients, but also those whose crippling after-effects are of such nature that they may respond favorably to physiotherapy techniques.

Medical Department

by DR. C. E. IRWIN, Chief Surgeon

THE METHODS of treating residual paralysis and deformities following an attack of anterior poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis) as employed at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation today are essentially no different in principle from those of other orthopedic institutions throughout the country. Pathology of the disease and fundamental orthopedic principles form the basis of treatment for every patient.

The Georgia Warm Springs Foundation is probably best known for its past work in hydrotherapy, particularly exercise in a medium of warm water. In its beginning some thirteen years ago, this was a justifiable recognition, since supervised exercise in a pool of naturally warm water constituted the chief and almost the only method of treatment. From this single plan of treatment there has been a gradual evolution to our present-day system which, as a whole, bears little similarity to that employed in the earlier days.

A complete physical examination is made of every patient on admission. The entire body has been subjected to a severe shock and physiologically altered as a result of the poliomyelitis attack. Faulty elimination, loss of weight, anorexia and anemia are only a few of the abnormal conditions found on examination. The institution of appropriate treatment for these conditions is essential and increases the patient's response to the prescribed orthopedic measures.

Orthopedic examinations must be thorough. Complete muscle tests are an important part of the examination and form a basis on which the indicated method of treatment is founded. Without an accurate muscle analysis, the surgeon cannot possibly outline an intelligent treatment program. These initial examinations are made by a trained technician who is an experienced physical therapist. The chance of error is lessened if, in making comparative tests, each subsequent examination is made by the same technician. Routine x-rays of the spine and pelvis, with the patient in sitting and supine positions, enable the physician to detect many cases of early scoliosis which would otherwise be overlooked. Treatment of the poliomyelitis patient, particularly one who is severely handicapped, cannot be done satisfactorily by any one individual. The treatment program, in the majority of cases, requires a trained organization which includes orthopedic service, the services of an internist, orthopedic nursing, physical therapy, brace maker, and adequate physical facilities designed for the handicapped patient. All these departments must be coordinated to bring about that degree of improvement which is possible to obtain ultimately for the patient.