NEW VICTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 126, 31 May 1938, Page 5

NEW VICTORY.

WAR ON DISEASE.

ACTIVITIES OF VIRUSES.

Tlllßlfi TO THE EYE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10.

Man has won another round in his battle to curb disease, it was disclosed at the California Institute of Technology. He has succeeded in making visible to the eye the activities and growth of his deadliest foe, viruses which cause such diseases as rabies, infantile paralysis, influenza, and possibly cancer.

If chickens multiplied as fast as the viruses studied by Dr. Emory L. Ellis/ California Technology biologist, there not only would be several in every pot but the earth in a few months would be enclosed by a poultry blanket that would reach the stratosphere.

With the aid of a microscope the scientist actually witnesses carnage and military victories on a scale never approached by human soldiers. An unseen virus, now thought to consist of a protein molecule, attacks one of a group of bacteria. "Then in about 15 minutes," Dr. Ellis explained, "this bacterium suddenly vanishes before my eyes." The result of this "dynamiting" of the bacterium by the tatter's virus enemy is found to result instantaneously in the birth of 70 new virus warriors!

When ample Dacteria victims are supplied. the virus army is thus multiplied by 70 every 30 minutes.. Thus, if necessary, the biologist, starting with a lone virus, could breed an additional billion viruses in about four hours.

And if, as science concludes, viruses' consist of molecules, 50 of them_ would tip the scales at less than a ten-trillionth of a gram. But it would take only seven hours, say the investigators, Jor the 50 to produce a family that would weigh a full gram. {

Sheds New Light. Although the viruses being used in the new Californian research are not of a disease-producing strain, it is hoped that the study of their antics will shed new light on virus diseases which annually exact a toll of millions of human lives. Dr. Ellis no longer is dependent upon the microscope to see the slaughter of bacteria by the infinitely smaller viruses. In about six hours enough bacteria are destroyed to leave holes large enough to be seen with the naked eye in the cultures covering the bottoms 1 of glass saucers. Many of the cultures, or concentrated bacteria, bear scores of these pits that are produced wherever a battalion of bacteria have been "shelled" into oblivion by invading viruses. It is not known why eaclj victory results in an almost magical recruiting of additional invaders. Scientists have cunning methods by which the unseen is made visible. Dr. Carl D. Anderson, physicist, won the Nobel Prize after lie had made visible to the human eye the activities of cosmic rays engaged in the very act of- smashing hearts of atoms. "Now Dr. Ellis makes visible the crimes of virus particles which attack bacteria. By touching a needle-like probe to a single hole exploded in the saucer cultures and touching it again to another culture he can isolate a pure strain of viruses and carry it on indefinitely through countless generations. . Importance of Work. And this is important, say other scientists, because it is suspected that sudden transformations, or mutations, in an ordinarily harmless virus may convert it into a more deadly variety. Keeping certain strains under constant surveillance may yet explain how a harmless virus is changed into a social menace. Only recently it has been established, according to Dr. Ellis, that.viruses cause certain forms of cancer in rabbits and chickens. He thinks this is no indication that human cancer also is caused by a virus, but he does think it suggests that the latter possibility warrants further research. The Californian investigator is not seeking spectacular cures for the many virus diseases. He is content to develop basic methods for learning more about the habits of the small but voracious molecules which many think "erase the border line between living and non-living substances. Dr. Ellis and'others in his field occupy the advance outposts of medical science.