Abstract
These remarks are designed as a preface to a series of reports on the propagation of the viruses of poliomyelitis in tissue culture. To achieve clarity in presentation, the division of topics has been somewhat arbitrary. In consequence each report will contain data obtained through the application of phenomena or techniques described in certain of the other papers. Accordingly, it was thought that it might prove helpful to the reader to summarize here the content of the various papers and to indicate their principal interrelationships. It also seemed appropriate to review in a preface of this sort the literature relevant to the series as a whole as well as the earlier communications from this laboratory.
Since the demonstration by Landsteiner (1) in 1908 that poliomyelitis could be produced in monkeys, various workers have attempted to cultivate the causative agent in vitro.