EPIDEMICS of poliomyelitis usually start about the time fruits and vegetables begin to ripen. This is true not only for epidemics in the north, but also for those in the south temperate zone.1
Many patients with poliomyelitis admitted to City Hospital, Cleveland, gave a history of eating fruits just prior to the onset of the disease and often spontaneously connected the eating of fruits with the disease.
One of us (Toomey) has often suggested that the virus which causes the infection could be carried into the gastrointestinal tract either in or on food. He has made numerous, but unsuccessful, attempts to initiate and to propagate the disease in animals by injecting extracts or washings from fruits and vegetables.2 Peaches are frequently implicated by the laity, and these stone fruits are often infected with viruses. It occurred to us that Prunus virus I (peach yellows), or some other virus