The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-11-06

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his column.
Asked what virus was he said it
was too small to see under the
most powerful microscope, that
while a virus acted like a bacter-
ium in causing disease it had char
acteristics which were different
from any germ, bacillus or bac-
terium known and he was not sure
even that it was living organism.
Perhaps it was just a chemical
on the borderline between living
and non-living Materials self
propagating engine. This last
conception has been the most diff
cult for the old fashioned biolo-
gists to grasp, but it may be true.
Viruses are certainly the small
est of living creatures if they are
living. When the bacteriologist
wants to sterilize a solution, the
chemical nature of which would be
destroyed by boiling, he passes it
through Berkefeld filter which is
made of kind of porcelain of dia-
tenacious earth This will pass
chemical solu lions through, but no
bacteria ever pass it. But viruses
will pass through, so they have
been called filterable viruses.
Size of Virus
Some idea of the size Of virusvs
can be obtained by a comparison
made imaginatively by a distin-
guished scientist. We cannot see
red blood cell with the naked eye,
but if a red blood cell were to be
enlarged so that it was fifty-fve
feet in diameter and if leaned up
against a three-story building it
would reach to the roof, and if all
other microscopic objects were to
be enlarged in the same proportion
a medium sized germ, say the
bacillus of typhoid fever, would
measure five feet across. The virus
of smallpox would measure fifteen
inches, the virus OF yellow fever
about two inches, and the virus Of
infantile paralysis about ONT inch.
The diseases which the flterable
viruses cause are many. A great
many diseases of domestic ami
mals-foot and mouth disease, dis
temper, to name two, are ascribed
to them. The common human dis
eases considered 20 be due to vir-
uses are smallpox, chickenpoz,
measles, mumps, shingles, ence-
phalitis, the common cold, and in
fantile paralysis. Psychologists
labored for years with all their
culture methods, microscopes and
other instruments to trap the
germs of these diseases, but none
were ever found. The cause in each
case was too small and elusive.
So, also, we have no serums for
these virus diseases. Also the sulfa
drugs and penicillin, those wonder
workers in other bacterial dis
eases, do not seem to do any good.
Nor, except in the case of small
pox, do any Of our ordinary meth
DDS Of prevention work against
them. And in smallpox we do not
follow the procedure of obtaining
antitoxin as we do in other cases
where serums, vaccines and anti
toxins are available: we cannot
culture the germ and kill it to
make a vaccine, or inject it into an
animal to create an antitoxin be-
cause there is no germ tc be found.
In the case of smallpox we must
rely on the material produced by
the growth of the virus on living
tissue-it used to be the COW, now
it is the chick embryo.
Nor do the ordinary public
health measures of filtering water,
dairy and food inspection, sewage
disposal, ETC., avail against the
spread of the virdses. Our help
lessness has been recently demon
strated again in this years cpl
demic Of infantile paralysis, which
ran it course uninhuenced by pub
lie health control.
But science has started to at
tack the virus diseases in earnest
and we may hope for results in the
near future.