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The present report describes the isolation and certain properties of a virus recovered from the feces of children having symptoms similar to those of poliomyelitis. The agent differs from poliomyelitis virus in its host range, being pathogenic for suckling mice and hamsters but not for adult mice or hamsters or for rhesus monkeys. The disease in the experimental animal differs from poliomyelitis in that the anatomical response is in the striated muscles rather than the central nervous system (1).The study was undertaken in 1947 and the original plan was to test fecal suspensions in mice and hamsters from a number of outbreaks. The work was prompted by the report of Milzer and Byrd (2) that autolyzed brain suspension facilitates the isolation of poliomyelitis virus in mice, and by certain unpublished observations of the Battle Hill epidemic of poliomyelitis, which implied that such isolations might be possible. Hamsters were included because of their value in the Battle Hill work (3). After many specimens had been tested without success, it was decided to add an additional group of test animals, suckling mice. This was done because other studies in the Division had suggested that such animals are unusually susceptible, under certain circumstances, to the OT strain of mouse encephalomyelitis virus. Nature of the SpecimensPoliomyelitis was not epidemic in up-state New York in 1947 and only 925 cases were reported to the Department of Health. Thirty (3.2 per cent) of these died. The non-paralytic cases amounted to 42.6 per cent. Twenty per cent of the patients were more than 20 years of age. The disease did not differ significantly in these respects from that in the 2 preceding years or in 1948.The specimens were collected by district state health officers from five small outbreaks in widely separated parts of New York State. One or more fecal and blood samples were received from forty-two individuals, of whom fourteen were patients and twenty-eight were contacts. MetkodsThe blood was mailed to the central laboratory in the usual fashion. The feces were brought directly to us by messenger or shipped in iced containers. When received, the feces 567 on

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