EXPERIMENTAL EPIDEMIC POLIOMYELITIS IN MONKEYS

Abstract

In our last communication,¹we pointed out that by making use of the filterable nature of the virus of epidemic poliomyelitis we had succeeded in detecting it in the nasal and pharyngeal mucosa of the monkey, from which we concluded that one path of elimination of the virus was by way of the nasal mucosa through its lymphatic connections with the pia arachnoid of the brain. On the basis of this observation, we assumed that infection in the monkey might be accomplished by the reverse route, namely, from the nasal and pharyngeal mucosa, and that this route probably represents one of those traversed by the virus in the course of spontaneous infection in man. We have made some experiments covering this point and have ascertained that when an emulsion of the spinal cord from a recently paralyzed monkey is brought into intimate contact with the scarified mucous membrane