The determination of the strength of partly paralyzed muscles in infantile paralysis, if made at all, has been done in the past by the roughest sort of guess, most often by pressing the hand against the contracting muscle. It was suggested to the physiological department of Harvard University in the winter of 1914-1915 that a more accurate means of estimating muscular strength would be of great value, and the method here described was formulated, with the following aims:
To enable a more accurate diagnosis to be made in the way of picking out the seriously affected muscles after an attack.
To obtain a means of indicating the muscles which were most promising for mechanical or operative treatment.
A quantitative measurement of this sort which would give a means of gaging the effectiveness of different modes of treatment.
A method of this kind might enable one to pick out from supposedly