Abstract
Papillomas of the skin and mucous membranes are frequent in man and many of the lower animals. That certain of these growths are caused by filterable viruses has been demonstrated, notably verruca vulgaris in man, 1 oral papillomatosis of dogs, 2 cattle warts 3 and the papillomatosis of American cottontail rabbits. 4 All these growths are readily induced in susceptible hosts by inoculation with the respective viruses. In general, animals of other species than that furnishing the virus prove resistant on inoculation, though some problematic transfers have been reported. The virus of the Shope papilloma of cottontails is undoubtedly effective in other kinds of rabbits, 5 but guinea pigs, dogs, cats, rats and mice have proved insusceptible. Despite the limitations thus illustrated in the pathogenic range of the viruses, the strikingly similar characters of the growth produced by those deriving from various animals suggest that they may be related, like the viruses causing the pox diseases and the swine and human influenza viruses. We have tested this possibility immunologically, seeking for evidence of cross neutralization between the virus of rabbit papillomatosis and the sera of dogs, rabbits, cattle, and men bearing virus-induced papillomas or recently recovered from them. It is known that these growths induce neutralizing antibodies for the homologous agents with fair regularity. It was impracticable for us to test most of the sera against the homologous agents; and hence we have assumed that they were actively neutralizing.
Serum was procured from a cottontail rabbit trapped in Texas and carrying many cutaneous papillomas, as also from 2 cows of the same Texas neighborhood,—one a yearling heifer bearing characteristic papillomas of the kind due to virus, the other a cow about 2 years old in which similar growths had retrogressed about 4 months previously.
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