6 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 370 



agent for lyniphocytoma, fowl paralysis, and transmissible leukosis (Patterson, 

 Wilcke, Murray and Henderson 163, Johnson 108, and Lee, Wilcke, Murray, 

 and Henderson 125, 126). Others (Pappenheimer, Dunn, and Seidlin 162, Seagar 

 179, Jungherr 115, and Gibbs 87) present data of transmission experiments to 

 suggest the association of lymphocytoma and fowl paralysis. 



Furth (77, 78, 80) has developed an agent (known as Strain 2 agent) which 

 originated in a chicken inoculated with his Strain 1 (Strain 1 produced only 

 erythroblastic or myeloblastic fowl leukosis) and which upon inoculation into 

 susceptible birds gives rise to what he terms lymphomatosis and occasionally 

 myelomatosis and endothelioma. This neoplastic disease was characterized by 

 local lymphomatous tumor formation at the site of inoculation, after intra- 

 muscular inoculation with viable cells. This was accompanied by extensive 

 lymphomatous infiltration of the liver, spleen, and bone marrow, and less fre- 

 quently of the thymus, kidneys, heart, muscle, lungs, ovary, nerves, and nerve 

 ganglia. Following inoculation with material devoid of living cells, no local 

 tumor formation developed but changes were noted in the visceral organs and 

 bone marrow of the animals (only eight instances of such a reaction occurred 

 among 39 chickens so inoculated). The reaction of lymphomatosis was usually 

 associated with anemia and an increase of large lymphocytes in the circulating 

 blood. In the case of myelomatosis there was an increase of myelocytes in the 

 blood. The reaction noted in the blood was in some instances very similar to 

 and difficult to differentiate from erythroblastic leukosis. Furth, however, 

 interpreted the process as a condition associated with the primary disturbance 

 of the lymphoid tissue. When the Strain 2 agent was inoculated into a nerve 

 a localized thickening and infiltration of adjacent tissues resulted, but this local 

 reaction and the cellular reactions noted in the nerves of chickens inoculated by 

 other routes were not believed by Furth to represent the condition of fowl paral- 

 ysis. Furth (81) observed a transmissible osteochondrosarcoma in a chicken 

 that had received an intravenous inoculation of blood from a bird previously 

 inoculated with the Strain 2 agent. In the course of transmission experiments 

 with this tumor it was found that implantation of the tumor produced either 

 the tumor, or lymphomatosis, or a combination of both; but that successive 

 passages made by intravenous or intramuscular inoculations of blood from birds 

 with lymphomatosis gave rise to lymphomatosis only. He, therefore, believed 

 that the osteochondrosarcoma was caused by an agent (Strain 12) which had 

 come into association with the Strain 2 agent. It is of interest that Furth (80) 

 distinguished this transmissible disease caused by the Strain 2 agent from "spon- 

 taneous lymphomatosis" associated with marked enlargement of the liver ("big 

 liver disease," "hepatolymphomatosis"). He believes that there is no state of 

 leukemia or involvement of the peripheral blood in the latter disease. The 

 transmissible lymphomatosis of Furth was regarded by him as being a rare spon- 

 taneous disease of chickens. It is difficult to place in any particular class and its 

 inclusion in this section on lymphocytoma is entirely arbitrary. 



Olson and Zeissig (159) studied the antigenic properties of normal tissues of 

 the chicken (thymus, bursa of Fabricius, and peripheral ner\e) and tissues con- 

 taining pathological infiltrations of lymphoid cells (lymphocytoma and nerves 

 in instances of fowl paralysis). No antigenic differences between normal and 

 pathological lymphoid tissue could be detected in the antiserums prepared by 

 injection of rabbits with the respective materials. 



The basal metabolic rate of chickens affected with lymphocytoma, atypical 

 lymphocytoma, or myelocytoma was found by Olson and Dukes (157) to be 

 markedly increased, whereas it was observed to be normal in chickens with fowl 



