SONIC AND OSMOTIC EFFECTS ON VIRUSES 



173 



show a rough proportionality to the virus volume. This can be 

 seen from Table 7.1. The existence, or not, of a tail seems to be 

 unimportant, as T-7, with a short tail, is inactivated much like 

 T-1, which has a long tail. More detailed studies are necessary 

 before the nature of sonic action can be understood in detail. 



60 minutes 



Fig. 7.1. Loss of plaque-forming ability of the T-series of bacterial viruses 

 under sonic action, as measured by Anderson, Boggs, and Winters. It is clear 

 that the viruses are not inactivated in the same way. 



Three studies of sonic action on tobacco mosaic virus are of 

 great interest. Two of these, by Oster (1947) and Newton (1951), 

 are concerned with the effect of sound on the rod length of the 

 virus particles, and the third, by Malkiel (1947), is concerned 

 with the change in serological behavior after sonic irradiation. 



