A tumor of the chicken, histologically a spindle-celled sarcoma, has been propagated in this laboratory since October, 1909,1 and in the past few months has developed extreme malignancy.2 From a bit inoculated into the breast muscle of a susceptible fowl there develops rapidly a large, firm growth; metastasis takes place to the viscera; and within four to five weeks often the host dies. The behavior of the new growth has been throughout that of a true neoplasm, for which reason the fact of its transmission by means of a cell-free filtrate assumes exceptional importance.
EXPERIMENTS
For the first experiments on the point use was made of ordinary filter-paper and the ground tumor suspended in Ringer's solution. It was supposed that the slight paper barrier, which allows the passage of a few red blood-cells and lymphocytes, would suffice to hold back the tumor and render the filtrate innocuous. Such