Bacteriophage Under the Ordinary Microscope
Abstract
CONTENT ALERTS Receive: RSS Feeds, eTOCs, free email alerts (when new articles cite this article), more» Information about commercial reprint orders: http://jb.asm.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml To subscribe to to another ASM Journal go to: http://journals.asm.org/site/subscriptions/ ALVIN W. HOFElR Division of Food Science and Technology, New York State Agricultural Experimttent Station, Geneva, New York Received for publication March 13, 1947 In reporting his experiences on the use of the ultramicroscope for examining bacteriophage, d'Herelle (1924) stated: "If one follows a bacillus culture inoculated with the ultramicrobe one sees that a certain number of the bacteria become deformed, first becoming swollen, then taking a spherical form, and at the same time very fine brilliant points appear in the interior of the bacilli. Then, suddenly, there is a rupture of the rounded bacillus and there remains in its place a slight cloud of protoplasm in which are embedded the brilliant particles. The protoplasm dissolves within a few minutes liberating the corpuscles into the medium." In his later book (1926), he repeated the statement that bacteriophage can be seen through the ordinary microscope. In spite of the large amount of wNork done by d'Herelle, there has come to be a trend in this country toward