Enteroviral and Mumps Meningitis in Toronto, 1963

Virological investigations of 115 children with the aseptic meningitis syndrome during 1963 resulted in the isolation of enteroviruses from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and/or feces of 21 of 48 children who had no association with mumps. For the third successive year, Echo 9 was the dominant enterovirus in cases of aseptic meningitis in Toronto children, but no rashes were associated with Echo 9 meningitis during 1963, in contradistinction to previous years. Mumps virus was isolated from CSF of 25 patients by inoculation of rhesus monkey kidney cultures, and rising or elevated mumps antihemagglutinin titres in paired sera from a further 33 cases provided laboratory evidence of infection with mumps virus in 58 of 67 patients with mumps meningoencephalitis. No enlargement of salivary glands was noted in 20 laboratory-proved cases of mumps meningoencephalitis. Enteroviral meningitis occurred principally during summer, but the peak of mumps meningoencephalitis occurred during late winter.     

The Molecular Weight and Aggregation of DNA

The effects of enzymatic attack and of shear during the isolation and deproteinization of DNA have been investigated. Different methods of disaggregating DNA have been studied, and conditions under which reaggregation can occur are discussed. It was found that shaking with chloroform-octanol does not degrade DNA from the seven sources studied; that light scattering yields valid weight-average molecular weights for these samples; and that, when disaggregated, the molecular weights of these samples are in the range 1.2-2.4 million and the length-to-mass ratios are high.