COMMENTS BY ________ ON RESEARCH ON THE NATURE OF VIRUSES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00423R000500040001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 1, 1953
• Content Type: NOTES

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/24761IA-RDP83-00423R000500040001-1
(,)
-s by on Research
on the Nature of Viruses
(-) 16572
1. Q. Are you familiar with soviet or German work simthr to the research
of Prof. W. K. Stanley, University of California, on the crystalline
nature of viruses? What is your evaluation of such work?
A. I do not know of any work of this nature being carried on either in
Germany or in the UGSR. I do not, however, follow the soviet liter-
ature, I know that a lot of work has been done in this field by the
British but my knowledge of this work is based entirely on what has
been published in the open literature.
What in your opinion is the possibility crystalization and con-
trolled mutation of animal viruses will be accomplished in the fore-
seeable future?
A. In my opinion it is extremely unlikely that this will be accomplished
in the next few years, particularly if purely chemical means are
employed, There are, of course, two principal schools of thought on
the nature of viruses, 1,e. chemical compounds versus living organisms.
I tend to believe that viruses are a degraded form of life with their
own economy, On this basis, I woulA,pay that production in the
laboratory of mutants is more likelYjbiological means are used rather
than chemical. Actually, we have been able to produce mutants in the
laboratory by biological means but only more or less fortuitously
with unpredictable results,
31/ Q. Bo you envisage the replacement of conventional biological warfare
agents by mutated crystalline viruses?
A. / believe there is more chance of this in the case of plant viruses
than in the ease of animal viruses and again I believe there is more
Chance of producing mutants by biological means than by chemical.
-end-
:AL
nrity inform
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/24: CIA-RDP83-00423R000500040001-1