POLICY 292 POLIOMYELITIS the city jails, in 1876. The National Prison Congress, held in 1886, made the necessity of police matrons the subject of a strong recommendation, which was immediately followed by a great number of American municipalities. At the present time practically all cities and towns in this country have adopted the practice. POLICY, a document containing a promise to pay a certain sum of money on the occurrence of some event. In return for this promise a sum of money is paid down, called the premium. By far the largest part of insurance busi- ness is applied to disasters at sea; to destruction of property by fire; to mak- ing provision for heirs and successors in case of death, and to loss of time and ex- pense through accident. Marine policies are of two kinds: (1) Valued policy, one in which the goods or property insured are at a specified value. (2) Open policy, one in which the value of the goods or property is not mentioned. In England a ticket or warrant for money in the public funds. Wager policies, wagering policies ; policies containing the phrase, "interest or no interest," in- tended to signify insurance of property when no property is on board the ship. They are not recognized in law. POLIGNAC, an ancient French family, which claims to derive its name from a castle — the ancient ApoUiniacum — in the department of Haute-Loire, and which since the 9th century possessed the dis- trict of Velay. Among its most famous members was Cardint^ Melchior de POLIGNAC (1661-1742), who received a cardinal's hat after acting as plenipo- tentiary of Louis XIV. at the peace of Utrecht (1712). From 1725 till 1732 he was French minister at the court of Rome, and he was appointed Archbishop of Auch. Polignac succeeded Bossuet at the French Academy in 1704, andjeft unfinished the "Anti-Lucretius" (1745), a poem intended for a refutation of Lucretius. In the reign of Louis XVI. lolanthe- Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchesse de Polignac (born 1749; died in Vienna, Dec. 9, 1793), and her husband, Jules Due de Polignac (died in St. Petersburg, 1817), grand nephew of the cardinal, were among the worst advisers of Marie Antoinette. They obtained vast sums of the public money from their royal master and mistress. The Polignacs knew how they were hated, and were the first of the noblesse to emigrate. From the Em- press Catharine of Russia the duke re- ceived an estate in the Ukraine, and did not return to France at the Restoration. His son, AuGUSTE Jules Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac, was born in Ver- sailles, May 14, 1780. On the Restora- tion he returned to France; became inti- mate with the Comte d'Artois, afterward Charles X.; from his devotion to the ^policy of Rome received from the Pope in 1820 the title prince; was appointed ambassador at the English court in 1823 ; and finally, in 1829, became head of the last Bourbon ministry, in which capacity he promulgated the fatal ordonnances that cost Charles X. his throne. He then attempted to flee, but was captured at Granville on Aug. 15, was tried, and con- demned to imprisonment for life in the castle of Ham, but was set at liberty by the amnesty of 1836. He took up his residence in England, but died in St. Germain, March 2, 1847. His son. Prince Armand (1817-1890), was a lead- ing monarchist. POLIOMYELITIS, INFANTILE PABALYSIS, an acute disease manifest- ing itself in inflammation of the gray matter of the spinal cord. It is not a disease to which adults are liable, except in rare cases, and in one of its forms it attacks the anterior horns of the spinal cord with resultant paralysis, and de- bilitation of certain muscles. It is now conceded that many of the great plagues mentioned in history have taken the form of acute poliomyelitis, but the dis- ease was first diagnosed and revealed in its epidemic character during its prev- alence in Scandinavia midway in the last century. Since that time modern re- search has made headway in discovering its causes and elaborating safeguards and correct treatment, the Rockefeller Institute taking a leading part in these investigations. It is only within the last dozen years or so that it was revealed that acute anterior poliomyelitis was capable of be- ing communicated. The filterable but invisible virus has been located in vari- ous membranes and secretions of the human body, but its presence there has not as yet been clearly accounted for. Its admission into the body is considered, in the present state of knowledge, to be in the main through the upper respiratory canals leading to the cerebrospinal fluid. The preliminary symptoms include bron- chitis and intestinal maladies, with aches fever, and perspiration, followed by paralysis in the parts attached. The paralysis is usually permanent and no remedy has yet been found for the con- dition of atrophy which follows. Where the paralysis affects a vital organ the malady is fatal. Rest is a prime requisite in the treat'* ment of the disease, but this must be
