A Study of the Rous Chicken Sarcoma No. 1.

Abstract

Gye 1 concluded that malignant growth is a specific disease caused by a living organism. His crucial experiment was carried out as follows. A piece of chicken sarcoma was placed into a culture medium composed of Hartley's broth, 0.2 per cent KCl and rabbit serum, and was incubated at 37° C. After several days the supernatant fluid of this “culture” was no longer able to produce tumors in chickens. Next a piece of fresh tumor was ground up with sand and extracted with salt solution. The clear filtrate was then treated with chloroform. After removal of the chloroform in vacuo the filtrate proved to be inactive. However, if a mixture of chloroformed filtrate and culture fluid was injected into chickens, a typical sarcoma was produced. Gye assumed that the living organism which was supposed to have multiplied in the culture was in itself ineffective. It became active only when aided by a specific chemical factor, which was present in the chloroform treated filtrate. According to Gye, the chloroform treatment of the fresh tumor extract destroys the living organism contained in it, but leaves the chemical factor unimpaired. The present experiments deal with the conditions under which reactivation occurs and with the question whether “cultures” of other tissues than maligant tissue contain reactivating substances.