PATHOGENIC BACTERIA, RICKETTSIAS AND VIRUSES AS SHOWN BY THE ELECTRON MICROSCOPE
THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO IMMUNITY AND CHEMOTHERAPY I. MORPHOLOGY
- STUART MUDD, M.D.;
- THOMAS F. ANDERSON, Ph.D.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
Current textbooks, teaching and discussion in bacteriology do not reflect adequate understanding of the structure of the bacterial cell or of the smaller parasitic entities known as rickettsias and viruses. It is a well recognized principle in natural science that understanding of structure is basic to analysis of function. In most areas of the medical sciences this principle is not only accepted as a matter of course but, more important, is expressed in the actual content of these sciences. However, several special circumstances have tended to foster the development of bacteriology without an adequate basis of understanding even of the structure of bacteria. Bacteriology has been pursued primarily for its practical usefulness, only secondarily as a science in its own right; structural details of the bacterial cell are close to, and in many cases beyond, and the structural details of rickettsias and viruses are completely beyond, the limits of resolution
Footnotes
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Owing to lack of space, this article is abbreviated in The Journal by the omission of twenty-six illustrations. The complete article appears in the authors' reprints.
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The privilege of republishing certain of the electron micrographs was extended by the authors and the journals cited in the corresponding references in the bibliography and by the Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore. The electron pictures, with a few exceptions, were taken at the RCA Research Laboratories. Many courtesies were extended by Dr. V. K. Zworykin and Mr. James Hillier. The pictures of figures 12, 23, 33, 34 and 35 were taken with an RCA type B electron microscope at the Johnson Foundation for Medical Physics, University of Pennsylvania.
