MUMPS, MEASLES and MOSAICS. A STUDY OF ANIMAL AND PLANT VIRUSES. New Naturalist Monograph No. 10.

1954 1st edition. 8vo (139 x 206mm). Ppxii,160iv[ads]. Colour frontispiece photograph plate, b/w photograph plates, illustrations, bibliography. Green cloth, spine titled in gilt.

"It is less than twenty years ago that man saw a virus for the first time, and it is scarcely sixty years since the very existence of such a thing was first suspected. For viruses are organisms... so small that they may be composed of single molecules or chains of molecules of organic matter. Whether this virus matter is living, or is complex organic substance with just some of the properties of living matter, is still a mystery. Thanks to the electron microsope we at least now know the shape and appearance of many different viruses, and we are beginning to know what some of them can do. It is by the diseases that viruses exert a profound (and indeed wonderful) effect on many of the animals and plants of the countryside." Viruses affecting man, animals and plants are discussed. Chapters include: How viruses get about; The insect-virus partnership; The garden; The farm; Some everyday virus diseases; The virus diseases of insects; Virsuses and tumours; Isolation of viruses; What virsuses look lie - their size and shape; Controlling virus diseases; The nature of the viruses; Simple techniques.