VI. THE SHAPE OF VIRUS PARTICLES 



83 



main reason for which is descussed in this section. The reason for 

 the production of virus particles having peculiar shape and size cor- 

 responding to a given virus was considered already. 



According to our dark-field microscopic observation, the proto- 

 plasm of red blood cells also consists of virus-like particles, and whose 

 diameter was estimated to be about 0.2/j. (91). These particles, however, 

 fail to reveal their true features in electron micrographs unless exa- 

 mined under proper conditions. The writer had the fortunate oppor- 

 tunity to investigate a great number of electron micrographs of red 

 blood cells taken by members of the physiological laboratory in Yoko- 

 hama Medical College and was able to confirm that the particles were 

 revealed if Ringer's solution was used as indicated in Fig. 12. But 

 when physiological saline solution was used no particles were shown 

 in the micrographs as indicated in Fig. 13. Even when Ringer's solu- 



Fig. 13. A red blood cell photographed in physiological saline. No 

 virus-like particles are seen. 



tion was used, if a little deleterious manipulation was added to the 

 cells, the particles became much smaller as shown in Fig. 14. 



We noticed that samples of a certain unstable phage were occasion- 

 ally severely inactivated during the isolating procedure by our method 

 when physiological saline solution or distilled water was used, while 

 this was prevented by Ringer's solution (91). This may be attributed 

 to the divalent cations chiefly those of calcium present in Ringer's 

 solution. A.dams (92) stated that the addition of 10~^ M. concentration 

 of divalent cations, such as Ca or Mg, markedly reduces the rate of 



