326 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS The volume contains 32 papers by various authors dealing with dif- ferent aspects of the role of viruses in regard to cancer. Some of the discussions pertain to fundamental aspects such as propagation, identi- fication, biological action, and meta- bolic function of viruses in general-- having only a very slight direct relation to the cancer problem. Rhoads emphasized the fact that the transmission of a tumor by cell-free extracts does not neces- sarily indicate the virus nature of a tumor since the tumor transfer by cell fragments such as plastids and plasmagenes is a distinct possibility. Pinkerton noted that the type of activity of an intracellular virus such as necrosis, hemorrhage, in- flammation, or neoplasia may de- pend upon the action of exogenous agents on the host virus parasite relation. He maintains that chemi- cal carcinogens may only set the stage for the activation of latent viruses--the malignant cell then being the result of an irreversible adaptation to the virus. Porter and Kallman stated that malignant cells and proliferating, normal, and embryonic cells con- tain numerous cytoplasmic partic- ulates which are absent or scanty in non-malignant cells. To the readers of this JOURN^•., it may be of special interest that viral multiplication may be influenced by certain hormones--ACTH, cor- tisone, and testosterone (Hots fall). That several of the investigators maintain that the failure to dem- onstrate viruses in the great majority of mammalian tumors may be due to a masking of a tumor virus in the tumor tissue (Schles- inger). That the appearance of symptoms indicating a virus infection follow- ing the implantation of cancer tissue into the brain of mice may not nec- essarily indicate the viral nature of the tumor but the presence of a pre-existing dormant virus infection of the brain in the host mice or a contamination of the tumor tissue while being processed with a virus or'the presence of a dormant pas- senger virus in the tumor tissue (Koprowski). Duran-Reynals found that cer- tain viruses have a dual role being cell stimulants in the adult animal or cell destroyers in the young ani- mal. Chickens and pigeons painted with methylcholanthrene developed early lesions which resembled histo- logically fowl pox, had inclusion bodies and showed subsequently a gradual transition into squamous cell carcinomas. Fowl pox virus recovered from these lesions was apparently activated by methyl- chol.anthrene. It is concluded that the virus played a role in the pro- duction of some or all of the lesions elicited by the carcinogen. In discussing fowl lymphomatosis, Burroester noted the long incuba- tion period of the disease upon trans- mission. The active agent of un- certain vital nature was able to produce also leukemia, endothe- lioma, hemangioma, and various sarcomas indicating that the agent may be multipotent. Studies of Andervont indicated that the mammary tumor agent demonstrated in certain pure in- bred strains of mice is also harbored by wild house mice. The presence of the mammary tumor virus in laboratory strains of mice is thus not the result of domestication. Graff, Heidelberger, and Haagen- sen, stating that viruses play an accepted role in the causation of cancer and noting that mammary cancer is a disease of the adult fe- male acquired in infancy through

BOOK REVIEWS 327 an agent transmitted in the mother's ' milk, found that lactation plays an important part in virus prolifera- tion. The highest viral content of . the milk of mice was observed after the third litter. Gross, McCarty, and Gessler, studying the milk of human fe- males with and without a history of breast cancer or of cancer of any organ among antecedents, noted that the milk of mothers with breast i cancer had, on electron-microscopic examination, appreciable quantities of characteristic particles. The • number of these particles markedly decreased in the milk of mothers without a cancer history in the family. However, the identity of these particles with those found in the milk of cancer mouse strains is speculative. Dmochowski and Passey dis- cussed the physical-chemical prop- erties of the mammary cancer particulates of mice and women. There is no antigenic similarity between particles of human tissue and those of mouse tissue. Luck•, as well as Rose, presented data on the virus tumors of frogs involving the kidney and fat body. Grinder pointed out that viruses of rabbit papilloma have no immuno- logical relationship to viruses caus- ing the common wart in man and oral papillomatosis in dogs and cat- tle. Cottontail rabbits reacting vigorously to scarlet red and cer- tain other irritants are highly sus- ceptible to the papilloma virus. Antibodies of the papilloma virus do not cause the regression of these lesions because the intracellular virus is protected against the neu- tralizing antibody in the serum. " Papilloma virus can rarely be re- covered from papillomas produced experimentally in domestic rabbits. However, papillomas in the domes- tic rabbits have a higher tendency to become malignant than those in the cottontail rabbit. The papilloma virus does not play a role in the development of carcinomas from rabbit papillomas. These observations are confirmed by Syverton who concludes, how- ever, that the rabbit papilloma virus may act as a provocative carcinogenic agent. Smith, discussing infectious fibroma and myxoma of rabbits notes that these lesions are not true tumors. The viruses causing these lesions are closely related. Treatment with tar enhances the intermediary fibroma variance. The papers of Braun and Black deal with the virus origin of certain plant tumors such as crown galls. It is apparent from the paper of Bostik that the viral origin of Hodg- kin's disease is still controversial and that all evidence supporting this view is mainly circumstantial. The discussion of Gross as to the viral origin of leukemia in mice suggests but does not prove the viral nature of this disease. The venereal sarcoma of the penis and vagina of dogs discussed by Karlson and Mann on the other hand, is transmitted only by viable cells. The viral nature of the plantar and common warts is established by the demonstration of cytoplasmic spherical particles in the nuclei, according to Melnick and associates. The virus of molluscum contagio- sum is of cytoplasmic location and formed from a segmentation in the cytoplasm. Blank emphasizes that a malig- nant transformation of warts and molluscum contagiosum very rarely occurs. The causal viruses, there- fore, are not oncogenic.--W. C. HUEPEP., M.D., National Cancer Institute.