Abstract
As inoculation into rabbit testicles has been found to be a useful method for the propagation of certain viruses, this procedure was employed in an attempt to transmit a hypothetical virus of rheumatic fever to animals. Whole blood obtained from patients during the acute stage of the disease was injected into the testicles of rabbits. These were removed aseptically after 4 days, ground with sand and Locke's solution, and centrifuged at low speed for 2 minutes; 1 to 2 cc. of the supernatant fluid was injected intratesticularly into other rabbits. In 7 series transfers were carried on in this manner every fifth day for five or more generations. The rabbits used in the first few generations of each series had been previously injected subcutaneously with benzol in order to lower their resistance; later, normal rabbits were employed. Aerobic and anaerobic cultures of the testicles made at each transfer were almost invariably sterile; and dark field examination revealed no spirochetes.
In three series the rabbits showed evidences of an infection which appeared between the third and seventh transfer. This infection was manifested clinically by fever and by swelling and congestion of the testicles. Microscopic examination of sections of these testicles stained with eosin and methylene blue showed profuse interstitial accumulations of endothelial cells, lymphocytes and polymorphs in varying proportions; also marked disturbance of spermatogenesis. A characteristic feature was the presence of pink-staining bodies within the nuclei of large cells in the interstitial spaces. These bodies were indistinguishable from the so-called nuclear inclukion bbdies found in the lesions produced by the herpetic and other ultramicroscopic viruses.
What appeared to be a virus could thus be propagated indefinately in either benzolized or normal rabbits.
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