PLATES XXXV-XXXIX) J. PATE. BS~.-YOL. IxH (1955) 117 H 2 Nature, Lond., clxviii, 929. J. Bact., lvi, 755. Ann. Inst. Pmteur, xxxii, 49. Amer. J. Syph., xxxv, 503. J . Amer. Med. Assoc., cxxvi, 561. J . Bact., xlvi, 15. In Jordan and Falk's The newer knowledge of bacteriology and immunity, Chicago, chap. xxxvi. J . Bact., lxi, 455. J . Immunol., lxix, 645. A m r . ilrCed. Assoc., cxix, 880. Ibid., cxxii, 167. J .2. Hyg. Infektkr., xxx, 95.

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A NEW approach to the investigation of the ztiology of infectious mononucleosis seemed to be provided when Burnet and Anderson (1946) discovered that the sera from cases of this disease would agglutinate human red blood cells modified by the action of the virus of the Newcastle disease of poultry. There are three possible hypotheses to explain this serological reaction : ( a ) that infectious mononucleosis is caused by a virus antigenically related to the Newcastle virus retained on the blood cell ; ( b ) that there exists a fortuitous resemblance between the antigenic structures of the modified red blood cell and the virus presumed to be the cause of the disease ; (c) that no strictly immunological significance can be placed on the finding, since it may be due to the production of a labile globulin which, by some accident of molecular configuration, reacts with the modified erythrocyte.Since it has not yet been possible to cultivate or even to establish with certainty the existence of a virus causing infectious mononucleosis, there is no direct evidence to support the first two hypotheses. Furthermore, there is little information available about the relation between this serological reaction and the specific antibody to the Newcastle virus. It was therefore decided to attempt t o define more clearly the nature of the agglutinin for Newcastle-virus-treated erythrocytes with a view to determining its relation to antibodies for a range of known viruses and bacteria, and to non-specific or natural antibodies. During the course of the work an assessment of the value of this serological reaction as a tool in medical diagnosis was made.For convenience, the serum factor which reacts with Newcastlevirus-treated blood-cells is referred to throughout this paper as the Newcastle agglutinin. MATERIALS AND METHODSThe following strains of the Newcastle virus were used : 1. HERTS strain isolated by Doyle in 1933 from an outbreak in England; 2. Victoria strain (VIC) isolated by Albiston and Gorrie (1942) from an outbreak in Australia ; 3. California strain (CAL) isolated in California, U.S.A. ; 4. Massachusetts strain (MASS) isolated in Massachusetts, U.S.A.were inoculated into the chorio-allantoic cavity of 10-day-old chick embryos and the eggs were incubated a t 37" C. for 48 hr. The allantoic fluids were harvested after the death of the embryo and stored at 4" C. for not longer than 36 hr. It was important to use allantoic fluid freshly harvested and to avoid storage at -35" C., which led to much hwmolysis of erythrocytes. Virus strains.Inocula diluted to J. PATH. BbCT.-T'OL. 7 2 (1959) 67 68 R. H . A. SWAINTreatment of blood cells. The method of Evans (1950) was used, but modified so that group-0 human crythrocytes were exposed to the infected allantoic fluid for 3 hr at 37" C. This treatment, on routine checking, always rendered the cells inagg1utina.ble on re-exposure to the Newcastle virus but did not affect their agglutination by A and B strains of influenza virus.Doubling dilut,ions of serum from 1 in 5 upwards were p...

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