Abstract
In a previous communication 1 we have reported the suitability of the anthropoid ape as an experimental animal for the study of the upper respiratory tract infections usually grouped under the term “common cold”.
We showed (1) that the upper respiratory flora of these animals during periods of normal health very closely resembles that of humans, and (2) that these animals are extremely susceptible to “colds” when exposed to humans suffering from such infections and that the clinical manifestations of these infections in the ape are more or less identical with those observed in human beings similarly affected.
Further, in an effort to ascertain the possibility of communicating to anthropoids, by means of a filterable agent, upper respiratory infections comparable to the human cold, it was shown that filtered nasal washings obtained from humans suffering with typical colds when injected intranasally into apes produced typical colds in about half of the instances attempted. In all positive experiments Gram-negative anaerobes of the type described by Olitsky and Gates were cultivated. However, no etiological significance was assigned to these organisms.
The importance of control experiments was recognized and early in the above investigations, plain broth and heated filtrate intranasal inoculations were carried out but were soon given up as inadequate. It was felt that it would be of more value to use for controls filtered nasal washings obtained from humans who were not suffering from colds. However, in view of the difficulty of excluding, with any degree of certainty, carriers of the active agent during the time that the transmission experiments were being performed (October to March) it was deemed advisable to postpone this phase of the study until an inter-epidemic period.
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