Some Chemical Studies on Viruses* 



By Wendell M. Stanley 



Professor of Biochemistry and 



Director of the Virus Laboratory 



University of California 



[With 3 platea] 



Developments in the virus field during the past 20 years, mainly 

 chemical in nature, have brought the molecules of the chemist and the 

 organisms of the biologist into a new and very close relationship. As 

 a result, a new dimension has been added to chemical structure, and 

 new light has been thrown on that age-old question regarding the na- 

 ture of life itself. Because chemical studies on viruses have pro- 

 gressed so rapidly during the past few years that it would be impossible 

 to do justice to present knowledge in one lecture, I propose to devote 

 most of my time to a discussion of the implications of this knowledge 

 to general problems involved in that very interesting borderline region 

 between the living and the nonliving worlds and to touch only lightly 

 on some of the more significant relevant chemical studies on tobacco 

 mosaic virus. 



Mankind has undoubtedly wondered about the nature of the differ- 

 ence between living and nonliving thmgs ever since the ability to think 

 was acquired. We know that more than 2,000 years ago the noted 

 philosopher Aristotle considered this very question, a question which 

 everyone has undoubtedly thought about at one time or another. Now, 

 Aristotle had very little in the way of experimental results to stimulate 

 his thinking or to support his conclusions regarding the true nature of 

 life. Yet this very wise man set forth a suggestion which we, today, in 

 this ultrascientific world, can hardly surpass. Over 2,000 years ago 

 Aristotle suggested that nature makes so gradual a transition from the 

 animate or living to the inanimate or nonliving that the boundary 

 line between the two is doubtful and perhaps nonexistent. In other 

 words, he suggested the idea of a continuous spectrum or organization 

 from the living to the nonliving, that chemical structure blends into 



* Paper presented at a syinposium in honor of Roger Adams at the University 

 of Illinois, September 3 and 4, 1954. Reprinted by permission from The Roger 

 Adams Symposium, 1955, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., publishers. 



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