Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-05-25
BY ROBERT ID. POTTER,
Science Editor, The American Weekly.

NA/ITH a great 7-foot tall miracle eye
Wthat sees with electricity as the hu.
w man eye sees with light scientists
now peering deeper and deeper into the realm
OF the infinitely small and they have crossed
the berderline where the world OF the living
ends and the domain Of the inahimate non--
living matter begins.
The grea+eyen1 uf science is the ricetfon
n1iscroscope. With it scientists have
reached the no-man's land where may be
found the key TO the origin Of life itself
This newly discovered land Is the home Of
the molecules never before although
chemists have talked about them for genera
tons Much more important. 10 our everyday
life this land Is the hidden citadel OF the
deadly viruses those poisons too small TO be
seen with the eye or any ordinary microscope
Yet II is these vruses which cause some OF
the most bathing Ills OF man. They cause the
common cold. influenza infantile paralysis
measles, yellow fever and even childhood
chicken-pox and simple cold
What are the viruses?
Doctors and biologists used to think they
were simply very tiny bacteria germs too
small to be screened out by any alter used To
trap the known bacteria in the laboratory.
But now Or Wendell NJ Stanley OF the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
finds that they giant chemical molecules,
and not bacteria at all.
Some scientists are even calling viruses the
ghosts" Of bacteria or phantoms OF disease
germs because they create disease like germs
but do not have the bodily substance Of germs.
Yet these virus ghosts" can breed more
ghosts
Or Stanley lkens the giant virus molecule
to pebbles on beach which appear harmless
and peaceful until you stub your toe on them.
They may be that way for years
Then after these periods Of inactivity the
viruses spring TO life" and cause disease and
even death when they happen TO enter the
right cells Of the body by accident.
As though you stubbed your toe them.
This Is why virus diseases are so danger
GUS and nah7ing 10 doctors. The viruses
exist for all eternity doing nothing neither
growing nor dying They merely exist does
molecue Of water, molecule Of table
salt on a dinner table.
Yet, if these virus disease molecules enter
the right cells OF the human or animal body
severe illness and death may come. These
supposedly non-living molecules in their
home" grow and move about just like bac-
terra or germs
More the virus reproduces itself. spreads
just like bacteria do, and it is nip and tuck
whether or not the body can win it's battle
When Or Stanley recently received the
NtOl0 Mftdi OF Inc American institute OF new
York city for his discoveries he said IL was
"A most fortunate thing for man that virus
molecules had to find the right home" before
they began their deadly work.
The virus Of infantile paralysis, ne ex-
planned can only do harm when it enters the
nerve cells of the human body.
If science ever conquers the virus diseases
Of man. as the diseases of germs have been
controlled and in some cases conquered the
credit can go to the world of plants Viruses
are just much problem in the plant world
they are in the world of animals.
Most OF the new knowledge about virllses
their chemical nature and so on-has come
from the studies of DR. Stanley on tobacco
\ Mosaic virus This tobacco virus was the first
20 be isolated. II seems to be just about the
largest chemical molecule ever discovered,
Where water (H2O) has a moecule OF
weight IA, molecule of the tobacco mosaic
virus has a molecular weight OF 10000, 900
This means the virus is extremely large
and big enough TO be seen with the new cleo
tron microscope. although It IN still too sman
to be detected with ordinary microscopes