We normally think of viruses in terms of the devastating diseases they cause, from smallpox to AIDS. But in The Life of a Virus, Angela N. H. Creager introduces us to a plant virus that has taught us much of what we know about all viruses, including the lethal ones, and that also played a crucial role in the development of molecular biology. Focusing on the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) research conducted in Nobel laureate Wendell Stanley's lab, Creager argues that TMV served as a model system for virology and molecular biology, much as the fruit fly and laboratory mouse have for genetics and cancer research. She examines how the experimental techniques and instruments Stanley and his colleagues developed for studying TMV were generalized not just to other labs working on TMV, but also to research on other diseases such as poliomyelitis and influenza and to studies of genes and cell organelles. The great success of research on TMV also helped justify increased spending on biomedical research in the postwar years (partly through the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis's March of Dimes)—a funding priority that has continued to this day.

I. Introduction Of the ever increasing number of viruses known to affect man and higher animals, the virus of lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) was one of the first to be discovered. Indeed, this virus has been known and maintained in the laboratory by passages in a relatively simple host, the mouse, for 35 years. Yet our knowl edge of its properties is still scanty when compared with the wealth of informa tion available for other viruses, some of which have come to our attention much more recently. There are at least four reasons which may help to explain this seeming paradox. (1) The early belief that the LCM virus was the frequent cause of human diseases had soon to be abandoned; infections of man with this virus are rare. (2) By way of contrast, laboratory infections are not uncommon and they frequently run severe and even fatal courses. (3) Until recently, the only means of titrating the virus was by mouse inoculation, a method in which accuracy and economy are poorly correlated. (4) The virus is of unusual lability, being quickly inactivated under conditions which leave other viruses intact. Thus, when balancing medical and theoretical importance against personal hazard and tech nical difficulties, the result was quite unfavorable, and lack of interest was really not surprising. In the last few years, however, the situation has gradually changed and an increasing number of workers have turned their attention to this virus.

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