An Experimental Investigation of an Australian Epidemic of Acute Encephalo-myelitis

Abstract

1. The disease is an acute encephalo-myelitis produced by a virus akin to, but not identical with, that of the Heine-Medin disease.2. The disease was readily communicated, with fatal results, to monkeys (Macacus rhesus) by intracerebral inoculation of a suitably-prepared emulsion of nervous substance (brain, cerebellum, pons, medulla and spinal cord) from the human subject dead from “X disease.” Moreover, the virus was found to breed true in a succession of thirteen monkey (Macacus rhesus) generations.3. The disease was not communicated to Macacus cynomolgus (several trials).4. The disease was communicated by the above-mentioned method from monkey to sheep (10 times), from sheep back to monkey and on again from monkey to monkey.5. A certain number of sheep, perhaps 50 per cent., were found wholly insusceptible to the disease; others suffered lightly and recovered.6. The disease was communicated, with fatal results, by the same method, from monkey to horse (1 case) and to calf (1 case). Two calves suffered lightly after intracerebral inoculation of the usual virus-containing material taken from monkey and horse respectively.7. The virus appears to be held back completely, or to a great degree, by the pores of a Berkefeld filter.8. Storage of the virus-containing material in diluted glycerine, under cool conditions, for longer than a few days, reduced or annulled its nocive properties.9. Drying of the virus-containing material in Petri dishes, in an incubator, probably destroys its activity.10. In the case of the sheep, there was failure to induce the disease by swabbing the nostrils with virus-containing emulsion.11. There is some evidence that in the case of the sheep and the calf a previous inoculation with the virus confers immunity.12. One experiment suggested that artificial immunity might be induced in the monkey by inoculation of virus treated with serum from an “X disease” sheep.13. Intracerebral inoculation of three dogs, one kitten, two rabbits and one hen failed to produce any signs of the disease; and similar inoculations of two guinea-pigs gave doubtful results.14. Treatment of the virus-containing emulsion with (a) normal human serum, (b) serum from recovered human cases of “acute poliomyelitis” and (c) serum from “X disease” sheep prolonged the incubation period of the disease in the monkey but did not destroy the virus.15. Normal sheep serum and serum from “X disease” sheep did not neutralise the virus in its operation on other sheep.16. Two experiments suggested that the virus was no longer present in the monkey on the eighth or tenth day of illness.17. Two experiments towards the end of the investigation suggested a waning in strength of the virus.18. Intraperitoneal and intrasciatic inoculations of virus-containing material, also intracerebral inoculations of cerebro-spinal fluid, of a filtrate of faeces, of a “Noguchi culture,” of an emulsion of fowl ticks, of naso-pharyngeal swabs from human cases and contacts, and inoculations into veins, all failed.