Abstract
The experiments here reported represent a logical continuation of work previously published, 1 on the accelerated febrile response of convalescent monkeys to reinoculation with poliomyelitis virus. We interpreted our findings as indicating that recovery from poliomyelitic infection left the animals in a state of hyper-sensitiveness against the specific agent of the disease. The present paper purports to show that a similar condition may be demonstrated in children who have convalesced from a previous attack of infantile paralysis. We are much indebted to Dr. Charlton Wallace, Surgeon-in-Chief, and to Drs. J. M. Moore and F. J. O'Malley, Senior and Junior Resident Physicians of the New York State Reconstruction Home at West Haver straw, N. Y., for their most helpful support in this investigation.
Twenty-seven children and youths (3 to 22 years old) with a proven history of a previous attack of poliomyelitis several years ago, were inoculated intracutaneously on one arm with 0.2 cc. of the Berkefeld filtrate of a 5% monkey virus emulsion, which had been inactivated by heating for one hour at 65°C.† A similar amount of a filtered and heated 5% emulsion of normal monkey cord was injected intracutaneously on the other arm. Both preparations had been tested before use by culture and animal experiment not only for bacteriological sterility (including B. tuberculosis) but more particularly for freedom from live virus by intracerebral inoculation of one monkey. All of the 27 individuals reacted to the killed virus in a typical allergic manner with local redness and slight swelling, which increased steadily from the fifth hour to the 24th hour after inoculation. A slight urticaria1 reaction which appeared in some children during the first 2 hours after injection of the control material completely subsided over night, so that only the prick from the needle wound could be detected.
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