THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTAL POLIOMYELITIS INFECTION

Abstract

1. Eight rhesus monkeys with experimental poliomyelitis following intrasciatic inoculation of "M.V." virus were used to study the extent of virus spread in the central and peripheral nervous systems and the question of its elimination in the nasal secretions. 2. Tests on nasal secretions collected on absorbent cotton plugs daily and continuously from the moment of inoculation to the end of the disease failed to reveal virus. 3. No virus was found in the olfactory bulbs, nasal mucosa, tonsils and adjacent pharyngeal tissue, salivary glands, adrenals, superior cervical sympathetic ganglia, abdominal celiac ganglia, and small intestine. 4. Elimination of virus by the nasal route was not one of the consequences of poliomyelitis infection resulting from invasion of the "M.V." virus by way of a peripheral nerve in rhesus monkeys. 5. No indiscriminate widespread dissemination of virus occurred in the central nervous system of the intraneurally inoculated rhesus monkeys nor did the virus spread outward sufficiently to involve the collateral sympathetic ganglia or the collections of nerve cells in various peripheral tissues. Under certain circumstances, therefore, the presence of virus in these ganglia and tissues may be used as an index to the portal of entry of the virus.