The Wilmington morning star., 1945-06-17
Laboratories A.,
bolating Virusp,
BY HOWARD W. BLAkEsrp,
Associated Press Science ri-

an inci' ana much smaller tb,s
microbes is under way =, n S,aN
university. luz
These particles are viruses abn,
100 are known ard all canso '' ),
seases either animal or W., u
Their human victims include fs,,
til paralysis, flue, SMALLPOX r.bi s'
a form of pneumonia, COMES nv,e'
cold and many others. ''Va
When ten billion of these -;
particles are concentrated in ' ~.
cubic centimetar of LIQUID +S SaP
don't even fog the solution WY
can see through it as clearly
though water.
Until 10 years ago no sciors.
ever had unmisakably seen W
rus. Today only two dozen b. VIZ
been purified. Thee of these csr' ,
human diseases ere causes = trS
Of animal cancer and the otb,.
cause many diseases important, :,
crops.
Duke university has one ot ~,
few American laboratories davo,
ed to the first steps to solvjno "A.
virus puzzles and to make vaceirn
against their diseases. The otbe,,
include the Rockefeller Insitufo =,
Princeton and the Rockefero,
Foundation in New York. The XII.
workers are Decor J. W Bear.
his wife Dorothy Doctors A
Tayors and D. G G. Sharp AMI
Capt. |. W. Mclean Jr.
The virus of equine encepbaI.
myelitis known also as horse sleeo
ing sickness and blind stagger
which attacked 100000 hores i,
the United States ard also maw
humans in one year in the lat.
3Os is so potent that one graz
will kill ten trillion mice. That i
enough mice il laid end to end
to reach the moon and back CON
times.
The horse vaccine was produced
from the virus grown in infected
embryonic chicks. One egg made
enough vaccine to immunize 20
horse.
Il In most of The human disease
viruses it is not possible to gel
such large amounts Of the infec.
tive stuff. In fact It NAV take years
to find enough of the virus TO iden,
tify and to see under an eectron
miscroscope with a magniflcation
of $4,000 dieme:ers or more. That
is why virus studies still are in
largely unsolved nidical field
! If medical science is 10 make
vaccines the size shape mass and
makeup of each little particle must
be learned. This super-Lilliput joo
has been made possible by the
eectron microscope and by The
ultra-centrifuge in which the virus
solutions are whirled al hundreds
of revolutions d second in a me-
| tai merry-go-round about six inch
es in diamiter. If man were
Whirled that fast in centYifuge
he would weigh as much as four
loaded freight trans and their
engines due to centrifugal pull
The whirl renders the virus
particles heavy enough to settle N
walls of the merrv-go-round like
mud dropping 70 the bottom.
1t has been learned that viTuses
are shaped like balls rods and
beans. Their density is slighty
more than that of water and this
is about the same is that Of the
bacteria causing diseases. The par
ticles are made Of proteins fats
and sugars and these are COM
bined in greatly differing propoi'
tons.
/ Unlike the microbes the part
cles have no independent life. They
can multiply ony when in or on
living tissue cell. They are par
asites.
Because they are so smad
scientists at first thought that VI
rus particles were single moecu-
es. They were desc ribed Therefore
as something half way between NE
and inanimate matter. That DeAs
still prevails out the last Two
years work at Duke has produced
evidence that .he viruses are nd
molecules. True moecules OF
pure substance are uniform in 81"
and shape. y,
The virus of flu is neither lis
shape varies from nearly rooho "
a bean form. It's dialneters vary W
one hundred per cent,
Other human virrses nave SliiF
lar variations.
Under the olectron mIcroscop'
these virus particles show lSln",
outlined interior structure "l'li
resemble the npclei in ilVlhg us
sue cells and many microscope
forms of live.
If these Duke observations "a d.
correct then he gulf between ~
and inanimate matter IS EN-
mystery and nas not been pa 1T,
bridged by fnGins particles tho
are only half alive. -,
The Duke group has p'riilep, OF.
concentrated in aodition 10 NV. W.,
virus that of 'lu and OF ra00l' F~
pilloma which causes t0l"
animal cancer, h,
Flu virus already is used by ~
! Army to make vaccine "'- ~.
probably will be aValldole " The