Abstract
Bacteriophage (bacterial viruses) were discovered independently by two scientists, Frederick Twort and Felix d’Herelle, in 1915 and 1917. D’Herelle went on to carry out an in-depth study of these viruses, including replication and adaptation, and he proposed their possible use in anti-bacterial treatment. He called this area of research “bacteriophagy.” This research should be considered the beginning of molecular biology. D’Herelle was a very controversial character and had difficulty with the scientific establishment accepting his ideas and results, as they doubted the existence of bacteriophage and the concept of phage therapy. The opposite view was that lysis by bacteriophage was the result of autocatalysis. During this period, an institute of phage therapy was established in the Soviet Republic of Georgia by Giorgi Eliava, a colleague of d’Herelle’s at the Pasteur Institute. D’Herelle was invited to work at the institute but Eliava was executed during a purge shortly after its opening in 1937.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Twort, F. W. (1915). An investigation on the nature of ultra-microscopic viruses. Lancet, 2, 1241–1243.
d’Herelle, F. (1917). An invisible microbe that is antagonistic to the dysentery bacillus. Comptes Rendus Academie Sciences Paris, 165, 373–375.
Twort, F. W. (1922). The bacteriophage; the breaking down of bacteria by associated filter passing lysins. British Medical Journal, 2, 293–296.
Summers, W. C. (1999). Felix d’Herelle and the origins of molecular biology. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hausler, T. (2006). Viruses versus superbugs. New York: Macmillan.
d’Herelle, F. (1921). Sur l’historique du bacteriophage. Comptes Rendus Seances Societe Biologie Paris, 84, 863–864.
d’Herelle, F. (1921). The nature of bacteriophage. British Medical Journal, 2, 289–293.
d’Herelle, F. (1922). The bacteriophage: its role in immunity. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
d’Herelle, F. (1926). The bacteriophage and its behavior. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Co.
Bordet, J., & Ciuca, M. (1921). Remarques sur l’historique des recherches concernant la lyse microbienne transmissible. Comptes Rendus Seances Societe Biologie Paris, 84, 745–747.
Eaton, M. D., & Bayne-Jones, S. (1934). Bacteriophage therapy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 103, 1769–1776.
Luria, S. E., & Anderson, T. F. (1942). The identification and characterization of bacteriophages with the electron microscope. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 28(4), 127–130.
Duckworth, D. H. (1976). Who discovered bacteriophage? Bacteriol Reviews, 40(4), 793–802.
Chanishvili, N. (2012). Phage therapy–history from Twort and d’Herelle through Soviet experience to current approaches. Advances in Virus Research, 83, 3–40.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Taylor, M.W. (2014). The Discovery of Bacteriophage and the d’Herelle Controversy. In: Viruses and Man: A History of Interactions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07758-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07758-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07757-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07758-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)