As recently at the 1950's, polio was a common disease in the United States.  It was first detected as early as 1789 when doctors recorded small outbreaks of an odd disease accompanied by fever, paralysis and a tendency to attack children.  It wasn't until the summer of 1916, however, that the public began to pay attention.  Twenty-seven thousand people were paralyzed that summer from polio, with most of the victims being children.  This is why the disease was called infantile paralysis, although adults also were stricken by the disease (Smith, An Icon 36-40).   It was later renamed poliomyelitis, referring to the characteristic inflammation (-itis) of the gray (polios) anterior matter of the spinal cord (myelos).  After World War II, the named was unofficially shortened by editors to polio.  Heath officials and parents told children to keep screens closed, stay away from crowded areas...