In this short series I will endeavor, using “normal language” to explain the development of what is called "virology", I could have titled it "The A 2 Z (use USA pronunciation) of virology" or "The History of Virology" but it isn't that comprehensive so "An ABC...." it is! In Chapter 2 I highlight virology’s first major contribution to the "germ hypothesis" of disease, the Tobacco Mosaic “Virus”.
Chapter Two; Tobacco Mosaic Virus.
Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) is the Mark Spitz of viruses as it has many “firsts” to its name, it was the first “virus” to be identified, the first to be purified, the first to be imaged by electron microscopy (more on the limitations of this “non real time” observation process in a later chapter), the first to be described in print, the first to be X-rayed, the first to be crystalized, the first to have its Nucleic Acid (the N.A, in R.N.A/D.N.A) sequenced and like the photogenic Mark Spitz, TMV it is used as a poster boy for virology.
Mark Spitz the TMV of Olympian athletes.
In the 1870’s in Holland yields of the lucrative cash crop tobacco were been affected by a mysterious affliction known as Tobacco Mosaic Disease (TMD), symptoms of this affliction were a “mottling” on the leaves, large fields that had been repeatedly planted were especially susceptible and apparently when the “disease” reached a farmer’s field, it spread rapidly. Adolph Mayer a German agricultural chemist and director of the Agricultural Experimental Station at Wageningen, in Holland was tasked with investigating the phenomenon. He conducted analysis of soil for mineral deficiency, looked at nursery protocols & the planting regime (IMO all good research), but he was blinded by (the new kid on the block) "germ hypothesis" and determined to find a bacterial (invading pathogen or “germ”) cause, decided to grind up leaves from diseased plants & inoculate (as with "variolation” a cut was made) the extracted juice into healthy plants, he reports a 90% success rate in disease replication BUT....he never mentions a "control/controlled experiment", which in this case would simply mean inoculating plants with the juice (AKA sap) extracted from healthy plants to see if it was the process of inoculation that caused disease!
Mayer remained convinced the disease was bacterial in origin & his conclusion states;
1/ TMD is bacterial, but the "infectious forms" are "not isolated"!
2/ "Under natural conditions no significant plant to plant infection takes place"!!
3/ "Certain fields repeatedly growing tobacco are especially likely to be diseased"
Pay attention to number 2, Mayer is stating that significant infection only takes place under un-natural conditions; i.e. his inoculation experiments!! This is because he’d observed healthy plants amongst diseased ones and also wrote; "It may be accepted for certain, that an obviously diseased plant is never a source of infection for its surroundings." And in number 3, he describes soil depletion, an environmental phenomenon known for millennia!
Tobacco Mosaic “virus” had yet to be defined!
In the late 1880's Russian student Dmitri Ivanovsky (Iwanowski or Ivanowski) was commissioned by the Russian Department of Agriculture to study TMD as it was affecting crops in Crimea, he borrowed Mayers method of inoculating extracted juice from diseased plants, but first he ran the juice through a ceramic filter that removed bacteria, as with Mayer I can't find evidence of a control/controlled experiment. In his paper of 1892 Ivanovsky states;… ”I’ve found TMD only in coastal regions...so conclude that the disease is unique to humid, warm climates….” he went on to state that the disease was either caused by a bacteria that was invisible! or toxins excreted by bacteria.
So, although his conclusion refers to “the terrain” i.e. environmental conditions that made the plants sick he also prefers the "germ hypothesis" of disease and apportions the cause of the disease to “an invisible bacteria”!
Tobacco Mosaic “Virus” had yet to be defined!
In the late 1890’s Dutchman M.W. Beijerinck was the next to step up to the plate, he was convinced that Mayers inoculation experiments proved contagion, (natural transmission of disease from plant to plant) we can see this in his paper where he refers to the ground up sap of diseased plants as both a “contagium” and a “virus”, BTW he uses these words interchangeably throughout his paper.
Beijerink thought that the "virus" entered the severed roots of plants that had been re-planted, hmmm damaging root systems of plants causes leaves to wilt and get a "mottled appearance" who woulda thunk it? NAH! He blamed it on a “virus”!
He replicated Ivanovsky's inoculation of “filtered juice”, but with the addition of formalin to sterilize the “filtered juice” of any residual bacteria that he thought may have slipped through the filter, when after inoculation the plants became diseased, did he conclude that poisonous formalin might be causing disease? NAH! He blamed it on a “virus” & concluded that; "the contagium, although fluid, reproduces itself in the dividing cells of the living plant" and hence he re-defined "virus" from the previous definition "liquid poison"(or pus) to "contagium vivum fluidum" (living contagious fluid) and nowadays “virologists” credit Beijerink as the first to use the word “virus” in relation to a new class of disease-causing entity.
Tobacco Mosaic “Virus” was now defined!
Authors note; despite Beijerinck’s definition of this (ahem) “new infectious agent”, (“virus”) he did not stop the disease & commercial production of tobacco in Holland finished.
Contagium Vivum Fluidum was actually somewhat of a mouthful and also did not fit in with the microbial “germ hypothesis”, so was replaced with the term “filterable virus” following the publication in 1928 of Thomas Rivers book “Filterable Viruses”.
Tobacco Mosaic “Virus” was now re-defined…..for the first (but not last) time!
And as none of the three stooges had satisfied the Henle/Koch postulates that should have been the end of that!
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of that! In 1929, biologist Francis Holmes used the tobacco mosaic “virus” to develop a method proving that “viruses” are discrete particles suspended in the “filtered juice” (AKA sap) and that they have stronger effects at higher concentrations. Holmes’ method is called “Local Lesion Assay” (assay means analysis). The method involves sap from a diseased plant, abrasive powder sprayed onto the leaf and then “rubbing with fingers”!! In the paper; Practicing virology: making and knowing a mid-twentieth century experiment with Tobacco Mosaic “Virus” the authors write; “…this particular practice is subject to many errors, including damaging plants by rubbing leaves with too much enthusiasm & the experimental outcome can depend on the particular ingredients used, as well as an endless array of other circumstantial features…”, for this groundbreaking research (sarcasm!) Holmes was rewarded with a position at the Rockefeller Institute, where he got to work alongside Wendle Meredith Stanley…..
Stanley’s first job was at the Rockefeller Institute where Simon Flexner (dodgy geezer) invited him to join the “Plant Pathology Dept.” It was there in 1935, Stanley created a crystallized sample of Tobacco Mosaic “Virus” (the ground up & now filtered juice) that could be visualized with X-rays, this earned him a share of the 1946 Nobel Prize*. He then rose quickly through the ranks of The Rockefeller Institute becoming a “member” in 1940.
(*Authors note, we will see in future chapters that virologists & Nobel Prizes go together like bacon & eggs.)
Crystallization of the “ground up juice” (AKA sap) or “filterable virus” as it was now called (I hope you’re keeping up with the constant name changing) requires the use of a few Tonnes of “diseased” tobacco leaves and the following;
Safranine (for staining)
Ethyl Alcohol (a solvent)
Acetone (another solvent)
Trichloro Acetic Acid (to separate the solids from the liquid)
Authors note; Hmmm? Nothing odd about all those chemicals is there? Nothing odd at all about taking dead decaying matter and applying chemicals, followed by spinning, boiling &/or burning them and then recording what’s left?
Stanley was (like Louie Pasteur) a chemist and his crystalized version of the “virus” was a protein (a chemical compound) or more specifically a nucleoprotein. The “TMV” and all other “Filterable Viruses” that had since been [ahem] identified had their definition changed yet again and were now officially defined as a particle or a; “Contagium Inanimatum” (or “fixium” depending on who you’re reading) AKA a “viral protein”. Remember it’s necessary for the “virus” to be a particle for it to fit into the “germ hypothesis” of disease.
Tobacco Mosaic “Virus” had now been re-defined…..yet again!
In 1928 Helen Purdy conducted perhaps the weirdest experiment I’ve come across in the field of virology, she injected sap from plants with and without TMD into…...rabbits!
According to the orthodoxy; “Beale’s research was important in determining that TMV was a substance that was not found in healthy plants & unequivocally demonstrate a virus infection in plants”.
The idea was that the rabbits would have an “immune response” which could be noted in the form of “anti-bodies”, which would be in the blood (sera/serum) of the rabbits. The serum would then be mixed with sap from plants with TMD, before inoculating it (sap & serum) into healthy plants. Helen had hypothesized that rabbit “anti-bodies” would neutralize the “virus” and her experiments confirmed this with 83% remaining healthy and 93% becoming “diseased”. The experiments were however un-blinded and biased, the paper is included in the links for those who wish to peruse this Franken-science!
The first image of the Tobacco Mosaic “Virus” particle came in 1939 (Gustav A. Kausche, Edgar Pfannkuch, and Helmut Ruska) after the invention of the Electron Microscope, (an instrument that uses a beam of high voltage electricity in place of light to look at dead material that has been heavily altered) which allegedly revealed the alleged pathogen’s shape, as seen in a photograph of “the image” (micrograph) below.
The X-ray diffraction (3-D) “image” of tobacco mosaic “virus” particle (seen below) came from Rosalind Franklin, in 1955, not long after her contributions to the discovery of DNA’s alleged double helix with Watson and Crick in 1953. “In X-ray diffraction (crystallography) a beam of x-rays is shot at a crystal, the x-rays scatter based on the three-dimensional form of the crystal, and it provides a photo of a two-dimensional diffraction pattern. The 3-D interpretation of the diffracted “image” is highly dependable on the observer’s knowledge and experience.” TAM 2021.
And here below in full glory is a model of the above “image”!
After W.M. Stanley had characterized TMV as a protein, scientists working on DNA/RNA came to believe that nucleic acids (N.A.) carried genetic information so "viruses" stopped been a "viral protein" and became a "viral genome" (dangerous gene sequence) or short story long; “Any of various submicroscopic agents that infect living organisms, often causing disease, and that consist of a single or double strand of RNA or DNA surrounded by a proteinaceous coat” (AKA protein coat or coat protein). With out going into the dreary details it was TMV that supplied material enabling the study of biological particle assembly, TMV supplied the first evidence for the alleged “genomic capability” of RNA; and in TMV we see the first mutagenesis which in English is “messing with nucleic acid” which led to G.M.0.
So yet again TMV (& all other viruses) were re-defined AGAIN.
Authors note; The A,C,G,T & U of Nucleic Acid will be discussed in the final chapter of “An ABC of….”
In Conclusion; TMD was the start of virology, although the “sickness” of the plant was demonstrably due to intensive agriculture, contagion had to be blamed. The work of Mayer & Ivanovsky showed that environmental conditions and soil depletion (a plants strength relies on soil quality) were pivotal in the causes of Tobacco Mosaic Disease and also that they refused to see the results of their own work! However it is Beijerinks work that set the standard for all of virology, he started with a conclusion, an assumption that a “virus” as a contagious agent existed and he ignored the effects that his procedures & its chemicals had on his test subjects. His idea that a pathogen can be a soluble molecule that proliferates when it becomes part of a living cell was the foundation of all future virus research.
With the Rockefeller funded Holmes & Stanley we see yet more chemicals & procedures used that don’t have any relation to natural processes.
In the 1940’s with the arrival of the newly invented Electron Microscope (which enabled scientists to look at heavily altered dead biological samples and interpret a meaning about what occurs inside a living organism) we see more indirect evidence that simply “points (at something) and (then) declares!
With Nucleic Acid research we see more evidence of chemists viewing phenomenon as a machine and then seeking to define life from chemical reactions in a test tube (in-vitro).
I hope the evidence presented shows how it is in TMV we see that because bacteria couldn’t be shown to cause disease, we have the birth of a pseudoscience (virology) that supposes an invisible agent (the “virus”) as a cause of disease and then seeks to find a proof of that cause, whilst constantly redefining said cause. “The word “virus” was used even though no virus has been confirmed, thus making the use of the word “virus”; A Statement of Fact Before Confirmation.” M. Bailey
I shall finish this chapter with a 1938 statement; "Virus is not a scientifically based biological term, as is sometimes believed, but only a methodologically conditioned collective term" Seiffert. Source; The Early History of Viruses. Max Planck Insitute.
Further reading;
What makes a control experiment? - by Mia Breeze
Mia has a legal background, the article is very thorough.
https://off-guardian.org/2021/03/06/the-antibody-deception/
D.N.A. A Critical Review by TAM
This article by TAM is “The Business”!
Sources; (not linked in the text)
Annual Review of Virology Tobacco Mosaic Virus and the History of Molecular Biology
https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Documents/2008/Mayer1886.pdf (Mayers work)
https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Documents/2008/Ivanowski1892.pdf (Ivanovskys work)
https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Documents/1998/BeijerckSpotDiseaseTobaccoLeaves.PDF (Beijerincks work)
Tobacco Mosaic Virus: The Beginning of Plant Virology (apsnet.org)
A STUDY OF PURIFIED VIRUSES WITH THE ELECTRON MICROSCOPE by; W. M. STANLEY & Thomas F. Anderson (From the Department of Animal and Plant Pathology of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, Princeton, and the Laboratories of the Radio Corporation of America, Camden) (A 1941 paper detailing some of W. M. Stanleys “work”)
Wendell M. Stanley – Facts - NobelPrize.org
Wendell_Meredith_Stanley (bionity.com)
0biturary of “Rockefeller feller” Francis Holmes.
Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Pioneering Research for a Century | The Plant Cell | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
CHEMICAL STUDIES ON THE VIRUS OF TOBACCO MOSAIC: - ScienceDirect (Click on “view pdf”)
The Isolation of Crystalline Tobacco Mosaic Virus Protein from Diseased Tomato Plants | Science
Immunologic Reactions With T.M.V. (H.P. Beale)
Virus reconstitution and the proof of the existence of genomic RNA
Virus reconstitution and the proof of the existence of genomic RNA
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5O0somr0w18C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (A Virology Textbook)
Authors note; although the above links in “Sources” contain useful information, please imagine them all to contain the following disclaimer; “For entertainment purposes only”.
https://www.durianapocalypse.net/health/nature.html (chapter 66.2)
Bravo on this smoking investigation into TMD. It revealed a mosaic of smoke and mirror aburdities viro Lie gists are willing to employ to ‘prove‘ a ‘viral‘ cause of disease. I'm just glad we have dedicated sleuths like Andy willing to leaf through and expose the layers of fraud.
You've gotta wonder what those researchers were smoking from those fields of tobacco leaves. The side effects seemed to be rampant circular reasoning, no control, and an abandonment of the scientific method. Their disregard for environmental factors was truly terrain-ical!!
Well done, Andy! :)