Abstract
The search for a method of specific inoculation against acute poliomyelitis is not a new one. Shortly after the announcement by Landsteiner and Popper (1), in 1909, of the successful transmission of this disease to members of the monkey family, workers in this country and Europe began to study the immunity problems of this disease.
Flexner and Lewis (2), in 1910, demonstrated that monkeys could be immunized against poliomyelitis by repeated subcutaneous injections with increasing amounts of a saline suspension of the crude unmodified virus. They injected animals over a period of two and one-half months. About ten days after the completion of the course of inoculations, the animals were injected intracerebrally with 2 cc. of a filtrate of a very potent virus, of which 0.05 to 0.1 cc. would prove fatal. The animal tested presented no sign of infection, whereas the control died of poliomyelitis.
