Johannes H. Bauer
From the laboratories of the West African Yellow Fever Commission, International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa
1. The virus of yellow fever occurs in the blood of experimentallyinfected rhesus monkeys in very high concentration: of eighteenspecimens of blood taken from infected animals at the onsetof fever and tested in dilution of 1:1,000,000, all proved infective;and of six specimens tested in dilution of 1:1,000,000,000,three produced fatal infection in normal monkeys.
2. A considerablevariation in susceptibility was observed inthese monkeys whena highly virulent strain of yellow fevervirus was injectedin very high dilutions, and very small amountsof the viruswere frequently found to immunize animals withoutproducingany outward signs of infection.
3. In the majority of theanimals inoculated with minute quantitiesof virus the infectionwas characterized by a rather long incubationperiod, followedusually be a sharp, short febrile attack anddeath.
4. Humanhydrocele fluid from persons not immune to yellow fever,eitherconcentrated or diluted 1:1 with sterile physiologicalsaline,was found to be a satisfactory diluent for the virusfor titrationpurposes.
5. The development of yellow fever antibodies inthe blood ofexperimentally infected animals was found to takeplace earlyduring the course of disease. The serum taken atdeath frommonkeys that died on the fourth, fifth, and sixthdays afterinoculation showed no protective properties, butthe serum ofanimals that died on the seventh day or later protectedfullyagainst massive doses of virus.
6. The serum of monkeysthat were inoculated with very minutedoses of virus and diedof yellow fever after a long incubationperiod, showed no protectiveproperties.
7. The virus was found to possess a relativelyhigh resistanceto the action of post-mortem invading bacteria.The blood ofa monkey that died of yellow fever and was keptafter deathfor nine hours at a temperature varying between78 and 86.5°F. was still found to be infective in 0.01cc. amounts, althoughthe organs of the animal at that timewere already in an advancedstate of decomposition.