Armstrong – Table of Contents

control eggs were injected into a batch of young fertile (embryonated) chicken eggs.
Fluid from the allantoic cavity of several eggs from each group was harvested at daily
intervals. Dr. Hottle received these fluids for chemical analysis. The actual chemical
details of the test were rather complex, and the author was unsure what precise chemical
reaction was being tested. The end point of the chemical reaction was the intensity of the
development of a blue color measured in a colorimeter. In any event, the observed
intensity of the chemical endpoint seemed to correlate with the age of the developing
chick embryo, and there was no difference in the color reaction at each embryonic age of
the developing chick between those infected with the test or control inoculums. It would
appear, then, that the level of chemical reaction was related to some product developed
and was related to the growth of the chick embryo and did not indicate the proliferation
of an infectious agent.
These two simple controlled studies were instrumental in demolishing the
elaborate hoax that masqueraded as research related to the “common cold.” A few days
following the conclusion of the studies, both Drs. Atlas and Hottle disappeared from
Building No. 7; other researchers in the building had no information on the destinations
or subsequent careers of the two discredited investigators. Dr. Hottle was somewhat an
innocent victim in these events but he probably should have recognized his vulnerable
engagement in the flawed activity in which he played a part.
Shortly after the departure of Drs. Atlas and Hottle, a guest virologist, Dr. Edwin
Schultz of Stanford University, was invited to NIH to review the laboratory observations
generated by the Cold Virus Unit to determine whether anything could be salvaged from
the debacle. Dr. Schultz and Dr. Armstrong were contemporaries who worked in the mid-