Principles of Animal Virology

pertinent background information. Since new data are usually available to the author only from his own laboratory, work of others is rarely covered adequately. In the course of publication the novelty of the studies reported in a symposium is inevitably lost, the give and take of the discussion is seldom reproduced and one is left with a disconnected group of papers, each emphasizing work in one laboratory, work that, by this time, has appeared in more complete form in the regular scientific journals. These general limitations on published symposia apply to the symposium of Virus Growth and Variation as well as to other such collections. Nevertheless , taken individually, several of the papers in this symposium will be of interest to a wider audience. The two papers on microscopy and electron microscopy might be mentioned in the latter respect. The use of acridine orange to identify ribo-nucleic acid and desoxyribonucleic acid is described here by Anderson, Armstrong and Niven in more detail than has been available heretofore. A well-reproduced color plate gives some idea of the striking results that may be obtained. Morgan and Rose have added another series of electron micrographs to their extraordinary studies on ade-novirus and influenza. Here we may see crystals with their component parts resolved into row on row of particles and the virus particles agglutinating cells by the formation of myriad bridges. A review by Isaacs of recent work in interferon is welcome. This unusual substance, produced by cells in response to virus infection, is capable of suppressing growth of many viruses in addition to suppressing the growth of the virus which elicits its own production. While it is probably vain to hope that this substance may prove to be to viruses what antibodies are to bacteria, study of the system may lead the way to this long sought goal. Probably the number of persons who will want to read this book in its entirety will be limited. Many others, however, might find specific points of interest to themselves by glancing over the chapters and pausing where their eyes catch a particular point. Sir MacFarlane Burnet, who has recently received the Nobel prize for his work on immune tolerance, has probably been better known for his studies in virology. The first edition of his book Principles of Animal Virology was enthusiastically reviewed in volume 28 of the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. The …