A review of the literature on the etiology of Hodgkin's disease.

Extensive research to trace the cause of Hodgkin's disease to a bacterial or protozoan agent has proven fruitless. Although a viral cause for Hodgkin's disease has been previously suggested, early explorations along that line have not been confirmed. With the development of newer techniques for the study of viral characteristics certain apparently significant factors in Hodgkin's disease have been encountered. Most promising has been the consistent demonstration that Seitz-filtered, sterile Hodgkin's disease lymph node extract can be passed serially in fertile chicken eggs and that the amniotic fluid from these eggs possesses the capacity to interfere with the growth of influenza virus in eggs.