THE RELATION OF MOSQUITOES AND FLIES TO THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ACUTE POLIOMYELITIS

Abstract

1. Culex pipiens raised from the larval stage in water experimentally contaminated with an abundance of poliomyelitic virus were found to be incapable of causing the infection when allowed in large numbers to bite normal Macacus monkeys. 2. Culex pipiens which were fed on infected poloimyelitic monkeys during different stages of the disease were found to be incapable of transmitting the infection when allowed in large numbers to bite normal Macacus monkeys. A previous disturbance of the meninges by an injection of horse serum into the intrathecal space did not alter the result, which was negative. 3. The offspring of the mosquitoes which were either reared in the infected tanks or fed on infected monkeys were found to be entirely harmless when allowed to feed in large numbers on a normal monkey. There was no hereditary transmission of the virus from one generation to another. 4. No trace of the virus of poliomyelitis was demonstrable in the filtrate of an emulsion of adult flies and pupae of the common housefly and bluebottle fly which were reared in the laboratory on slices, emulsion, or filtrate of monkey brain containing the poliomyelitic virus. The intracerebral injection of the filtrate produced no poliomyelitic infection in the normal monkey.