Influenza: The preparation of immune sera in horses TOGETHER WITH Influenza: Experiments on the immunization of ferrets and mice by Laidlaw, P. P., Smith, Wilson, Andrewes, C. H. and Dunkin, G. W - 1935

London: H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd., 1935. First edition.

1935 LANDMARK STUDIES ON TREATMENT OF INFLUENZA BY HYPERIMMUNE HORSE SERUM AND DURATION OF IMMUNITY IN FERRETS BY PIONEERING BRITISH VIROLOGISTS.

10 inches tall offprint in orange printed paper covers, stapled, two papers from The British Journal of Experimental Pathology, vol. XVI, pp 275 - 302. Previous owner pencil signature and handstamp number top of cover, very good with no internal markings.

SIR PATRICK PLAYFAIR LAIDLAW (1881 - 1940) was a Scottish virologist. From 1920–23, he studied the properties of histamine at the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories after which he went to Guy's Hospital as a lecturer in experimental pathology. As a virologist at the Medical Research Council in 1922 his researches on dog-distemper led to two ways of immunization against it, which achievement earned him the award of a Royal Medal by the Royal Society in 1933. In 1927 he had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was one of the scientists working at the Medical Research Council (NIMR Farm Laboratories) at Mill Hill who first isolated influenza virus from humans. This happened when ferrets they were working on to develop a distemper vaccine caught influenza from one of the scientists in the laboratory.

WILSON SMITH (1897 - 1965) was a British physician, virologist and immunologist. He was part of the group that first isolated the influenza virus and developed one of the first vaccines against influenza. He was for two years a physician practicing clinical medicine in Manchester and worked for one year as a ship's doctor aboard a Blue Funnel Line cargo ship. He then studied bacteriology, graduating with a higher medical degree (M.D.) in 1927. He went into research and led a virus research group at the Medical Research Council in Hampstead in north London. There in 1933 he, in collaboration with Christopher Andrewes and Patrick Laidlaw, succeeded in isolating human influenza A virus and transferring it to ferrets. Smith was also instrumental in the introduction of polio vaccination in the UK and headed the Medical Research Council's Biological Research Board.

CHRISTOPHER HOWARD ANDREWES (1896 - 1988) joined the scientific staff of the National Institute for Medical Research to assist Patrick Laidlaw in developing a vaccine against canine distemper. This led on to research on influenza and the discovery of the causative virus in 1933 and subsequent vaccine development. He was head of NIMR's Division of Bacteriology and Virus Research from 1939 to 1961, during which time he established the Common Cold Research Unit near Salisbury as an NIMR outpost in 1947, and the World Influenza Centre at Mill Hill in 1948, which spawned a worldwide network of collaborating centers.

GARRISON-MORTON No. 5494. Andrewes, Laidlaw, Smith. A virus obtained from influenza patients. Lancet, 2, 66-68, 1933.

Smith, Andrewes, and Laidlaw first isolated the influenza A virus in humans. They successfully infected ferrets with filtered throat-washings from influenzal patients by intranasal instillation. The papers offered here build on this Lancet report, demonstrating that hyperimmune serum from horses has a beneficial action on mice already infected with the virus and that ferrets after recovery from infection with influenza virus are completely resistant to reinfection for at least 3 months, after which immunity slowly wanes.