Poliomyelitis.

Poliomyelitis was still a deadly disease in the 1920s, but victims of polio were given new hope by the invention of the iron lung in 1928. Polio, also called infantile paralysis, is a disease causing destruction of nerve cells, crippled limbs, and the wasting away of muscles. In "anterior" polio the respiratory muscles are paralyzed, often causing death within a few hours of the first respiratory distress. Due to its infectious nature, polio was a widespread and dangerous disease until the Salk vaccine was introduced in the 1950s.

Early Experiments Lead to the Iron Lung.

The invention of the iron-lung mechanical respirator allowed paralyzed polio patients to remain alive indefinitely, thus saving many lives. The iron lung was created by Philip Drinker after he observed several physiological experiments to design artificial respiration methods for use after surgery. The experiments, which were...