STUDIES ON THE VIRUS OF INFLUENZA

1. Evidence is presented indicating the presence of a filtrable virus in the nasopharyngeal secretions of individuals suffering from influenza. 2. An attempt to transfer influenza from one human being to another by means of filtered nasopharyngeal washings resulted in the production in the inoculated volunteer of a common cold. 3. A filtrable agent has been cultivated in tissue medium from the filtered nasopharyngeal washings of patients with influenza. 4. Inoculation of the cultivated virus into human volunteers results for the most part in the production of a severe common cold with a tendency to pronounced constitutional reaction. 5. In one instance following inoculation of culture virus an infection clinically resembling influenza has been produced. 6. The more closely the source of the virus approached the type of epidemic influenza, the more likely the virus was to provoke constitutional symptoms. 7. The presence of certain pathogenic bacteria in the upper respiratory tract of inoculated individuals was not observed to modify the course or character of the experimental infection. 8. On prolonged cultivation the virus loses the capacity to infect human volunteers.