Abstract
This note is written to correct the impression which was erroneously given 1 that purified SK poliomyelitis virus consists of asymmetric particles of the type described by Gard 2 for a strain of Theilers mouse virus. While this conclusion was suggested by one of Bourdillon's 3 experiments in which an older dialyzed, purified preparation showed double refraction of flow, the results published by Jungeblut and Bourdillon 4 show a remarkable agreement between purified SK and! our purified Lansing preparations. The purified SK samples in contrast to those from unpurifiedi tissue cultures showed the presence of “spherical or elliptic bodies” having a diameter between 25 and 30 m/x. It is noteworthy that particles of the same relative size and shape have been obtained, therefore, from 2 different strains of poliomyelitis virus, both of which were isolated originally from infectious human material. As it might be expected that different human strains would have similar physical properties, the results from the 2 laboratories confirm the fact that human poliomyelitis virus as cultivated in mice and in cotton rats consists of relatively spherical particles of about 25 mμ diameter.
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