A System of Viruses
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
The world, said Paul Valéry, is equally threatened with two catastrophes: order and disorder. So is virology. Whether the proposed “system” will decrease or increase the entropy of virology is not yet clear. The system has not, however, reached the degree of rigidity or perfection corresponding to a real catastrophe.
The necessity for a rational classification of viruses does not need to be emphasized. A system of viruses should not be restricted to viruses thriving in animals, or in plants, or in bacteria. A system of viruses should embrace the viral world as a whole. The reason for a general system is the biological, structural, chemical, and physiological unity of the group. Belonging to viruses are those entities exhibiting in their life cycle an infectious particle containing one type of nucleic acid only. This definition excludes from viruses infectious entities such as Miyagawanella, Rickettsia, etc.
Whether or not viruses...
