Respiration of So-Called Filterable Viruses.

Abstract

Some time ago one of us described a simple micro-respirometer which permits detection of very small amounts of CO2.1By the use of this method we were able to detect production of one cubic millimeter of CO2 by 15 million staphylococci in less than ten minutes. However, this is not the limit of the sensitiveness of this method, since the time during which measurable amounts of CO2 may be permitted to accumulate in the respirometer may be extended for days, so that the negative findings obtained by this method are significant.Having failed to detect by this method evidence of respiration in filtrates of so-called bacteriophage,1, 2 we thought it of interest to inquire into the question of respiration (CO2 production) by other so-called filterable viruses, particularly those of rabies and herpes. Since these viruses cannot be secured free from tissue cells, it was necessary, at the outset, to differentiate, on the one hand, between the oxygen uptake and the respiration proper with production of CO2, and, on ...