On Immunity to Transplantable Chicken Tumors

The phenomena of natural and acquired resistance to transplanted chicken tumors strikingly resemble those observed in the case of transplanted mammalian growths; and no more than those do they suggest that the tumors have an extrinsic cause. That there may exist in fowls implanted with a chicken tumor a resistance directed against the tumor-causing agent distinct from the resistance manifested against the alien tumor cells has been shown in a previous article. Both sorts of resistance are present in a fowl in which a tumor has retrogressed, the resistance in such an instance being acquired. That directed against the agent is largely specific, giving little if any protection against the agents causing other tumors. There is some evidence that the conditions upon which a fowl's natural resistance depends are the same for the agents causing different chicken tumors. It has proved impossible to protect chickens against the agent causing the simple sarcoma by injecting them with dried tumor material in which this agent has been attenuated by heat. The transfer of blood from resistant fowls to fowls with growing tumors is in our experience void of effect on the tumors.