Growth-cycle of influenza virus.

HOYLE has recently published1 an account of some experiments which lead him to put forward certain revolutionary views. It is often assumed that the influenza virus, a particle of about 100 mµ diameter, gains entrance to a susceptible cell, and in the cytoplasm proceeds to multiply by binary fission. Hoyle believes that, once absorbed, the elementary body becomes broken up into particles of about 10 mµ, diameter and that these particles, which have been previously recognized as the soluble antigen, are the tissue forms of the influenza virus which multiply within the cell. He presumes that later these small particles recombine to form elementary bodies which are cast out of the cell and which are specifically adapted for absorption on to the receptor sites of other susceptible cells.