Medicine: Spastic Paralysis

Since she was born 20 years ago, Sylva Eugenie Davis of Kansas City has not been able to use her arms or legs. The nerve tracts in the neck region of her spinal cord were injured at birth, causing spastic paralysis (muscular rigidity). But Sylva was endowed with high courage. She learned to read, turned the pages of her books with her tongue. She used a typewriter by poking the keys with a pencil held between her teeth. With a brush between her teeth she tinted photographs, made drawings. She was careful of her...