years before I got back to them [EAB – He was still working with lymphocytic
chorimeningitis.]. Finally, I tried again, and, sure enough, cotton rats came down again.
We studied them [EAB – primarily C.A. and R.D. Lillie] and the lesions were right for
polio, symptoms were just like polio, and everything indicated it was polio. It took a great
deal of nerve to say polio because everybody tried it, but I said I thought it was polio.
Some of my friends objected, they thought it wasn’t established. They argued that I didn’t
do this or do that. This was true, but I thought I had enough to make an indication. One
by one they came across and agreed it was polio, but type II; then, they were all supposed
to be type I [EAB – the prevalent strain]. Now there are III [EAB – types] and this [EAB
- the Lansing strain] was one of the rare types. Again, I just happened to hit a lucky one,
having tried the right animal. I then inoculated mice, and the mouse that I inoculated 31
days before came down with paralysis. I took that mouse and transmitted it [EAB –
poliovirus] to another one, and gradually the incubation period was shortened, but the
symptoms were just like polio. I gave the virus to other researchers, and they all agreed it
was polio. That gave us an inexpensive animal that was easy to work with. I don’t know
whether it would have been possible to make a vaccine without the mouse to go on. It
certainly would have taken a good deal longer and been very expensive.”
In addition to this major contribution made available to other investigators,
Armstrong continued his participation as a member of the Virus Research Committee of
the National Foundation. In the 1940s, he contributed to the Committee’s deliberations in
awarding research grants to investigators studying poliomyelitis, including the talented
teams at Yale and Johns Hopkins Universities, who made many of the major discoveries
about the nature of poliomyelitis (30). On October 25, 1946 Armstrong received a letter