STUDIES ON THE COMMON COLD

Abstract

1. Studies of the cultivation of the virus of common cold in tissue medium, and the capacity of the culture virus to induce infection in human volunteers are reported. 2. Detailed descriptions are given of the methods employed to isolate the virus, preserve and cultivate it, and to test its activity in human volunteers. 3. The virus of common cold can easily be isolated from properly selected patients and cultivated in tissue medium. 4. When kept in the original nasopharyngeal washings, the virus will survive at ice box temperature under anaerobic conditions for at least 13 days. 5. If the nasopharyngeal washings are frozen and dried in vacuo, the virus retains its activity for at least 4 months. 6. The virus of common cold has been proven to multiply in medium containing chick embryo tissue. Such cultures retain their capacity to produce typical infections in human beings for many transfers involving a period of several months. Attempts to cultivate the virus have been successful in seven out of eight instances. 7. Prolonged cultivation of the virus in tissue medium eventually leads to a loss of activity. 8. Strains of virus under cultivation maintain their potency best when transfers are made at 2 and 3 day intervals. 9. After removal from the incubator a culture of virus rapidly becomes inactive whether it be kept under seal in the ice box or frozen and dried in vacuo. 10. The destructive action of the medium can be prevented if the culture is mixed with gum acacia before freezing and drying in vacuo.