Medicine: Battle in the Blood

One of the newest and most hopeful weapons in the fight against polio is a blood fraction called gamma globulin. Doctors have known for several years that it is a rich storehouse of disease-fighting antibodies. They also know that injections of it will reduce the effects of measles in children. Now there is evidence that gamma globulin may be able to attack and destroy polio before it gets to the nervous system and wreaks its paralyzing effects.

At a meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Manhattan last week, two researchers described the experiments that give doctors their new hope. Working...