EFFECT OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL AGENTS 51 



Arrhenius constant (see Glossary) was somewhat increased by 

 the presence of urethane. The authors suggest that there may 

 be more than one urethane-catalyzed reaction involved in phage 

 inactivation. 



3. Detergents 



Because of the marked bactericidal effects of soaps and other 

 detergents, these agents were tested quite early for possible 

 virucidal effects. Vaccinia virus and influenza virus are rapidly 

 inactivated by detergents while poliomyelitis virus is resistant. 

 The earlier literature was reviewed by Stock and Francis (1940) 

 in connection with studies on the effects of soaps on influenza 

 virus. These authors found that influenza virus was rapidly 

 inactivated by oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acid soaps at pH 7.5 

 without impairment of antigenicity. Burnet and Lush (1940) 

 tested dodecyl sodium sulfate, sodium deoxycholate, and saponin 

 on a number of animal viruses and also on phages CI 6, D6, 

 D44, two salmonella phages and two staphylococcus phages. 

 All of the phages were resistant to inactivation by the three 

 detergents although many of the animal viruses were rapidly 

 inactivated. Klein, Kalter, and Mudd (1945) tested a number 

 of cationic and anionic detergents on vaccinia virus, phage T2, 

 a shigella phage, and a staphylococcus phage. Excepting phage 

 T2 which was resistant to all the detergents tested, all the viruses 

 were susceptible to inactivation by some of the detergents. 

 Putnam, Miller, Palm, and Evans (1952) noted that phage T7 

 but not T6 was rapidly inactivated by the cationic detergent 

 dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride. However, phage T6 is 

 inactivated by A//1,000 benzyldodecyldimethylammonium 

 chloride and less effectively by cetyltrimethylammonium bro- 

 mide and dodecyl sodium sulfate (Putman, Kozloff, and Neil, 

 1949). 



Certain detergents cause the separation of protein from nu- 

 cleic acid of tobacco mosiac virus, permitting the reconstitution of 

 virus particles from the separate components (Fraenkel-Conrat, 

 1956). Dodecyl sodium sulfate has been used in a similar 



