BOOKS RECEIVED
Microbial protoplasts, spheroplasts and L-forms
Ed. by LUCIEN
B. GUZE. 1968. Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Company; Edinburgh and London: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd. Pp. xxi and 523; 221 text figs. El I , 7s. 6d.
The study of infection by bacterial L-forms has been badly neglected, not least in Great
Britain. Some of the more important papers on the subject are in French, Russian and
Italian, so that this compilation is especially valuable. As usual in such cases, some of the
chapters are original papers, presenting new observations, others are personal monographs,
and yet others short reviews, summarising the available information. All have their place,
and it is always rather invidious to select names from so distinguished a company, merely to
patronise their worthiness. Even the lists of contents of the various sections lead the eye at
once to M. R. J. Salton, R. G . E. Murray, Claes Weibull and Ruth Wittler; further down
the same lists are Antoinette Ryter, P. C. Fitz-James, M. D. Eaton, M. F. Barile and innumerable others of like quality. No justice can be done on this score, by a mere reviewer.
If the title is heavy and repetitive, it faithfully reflects the terminological muddle that
has needlessly bedevilled the subject. This is rationalised, with characteristic common
sense, by the veteran Louis Dienes, whose paper should really have been given as an introduction. Dr Dienes makes clear his opinion that, in its list of names of various types of
bacteria with defective cell walls, the title should have included PPLO or mycoplasmas,
since there is no essential difference between these and bacterial L-forms; this view is
shared by others, notably the eminent Russian authority, G. Y . Kagan, but the step has not
been taken, probably because it would have ensured the condemnation of the book by
many specialists, to whom the absolute separateness of mycoplasmas from bacteria is an
article of faith.
In fact, the great service of this book to medical microbiologists is the light it sheds on the
peculiar and little-understood infections, with organisms generally classed as mycoplasmas,
that occur in renal and cardiac disease, and in a wide variety of auto-immune conditions.
The fourth and largest section, entitled the role of protoplasts, spheroplasts and L-forms in
disease, makes it clear that many of them are, in fact, cell-wall-defective bacteria. The preceding three sections are on mode of formation, morphology and reactions to inimical
agents, including antibiotics; they summarise and extend what are, by comparison, betterknown fields of investigation, and form a useful preface to the latter part of the book, but
since this is a very expensive production, a case could be made for issuing it in two volumes,
covering the biological and medical aspects respectively.
K. A. BISSET
The natural history of viruses
By C. H. ANDREWES.
1967. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Pp. viii and 237; 41 figs.
on 24 plates and 22 textfigs. &2,15s.
Only rarely does a book combine the authority, the scientific integrity and the eminent
readability that are found in " The natural history of viruses ". Natural history with its
strong descriptive and ecological bias has long been the traditional approach to biology, and
only in relatively recent times have the so-called " molecular " aspects played a more significant role in these studies. By contrast it was recognised soon after their discovery that
viruses possessed a unique significance as tools for unravelling the molecular complexities of
living organisms. As a result, the natural history of viruses has been rather neglected.
" Viruses may be thought of by some people as living crystals, but in practice they behave
like parasites " says Sir Christopher Andrewes in his (highly readable) introduction, and this
is the theme of his book. No living organism seems to be exempt from potential attack,
J. MED. MICROBIOL.-VOL.
2 (1969)
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BOOKS RECEIVED
sometimes in the most unlikely ways, by one or other of these ubiquitous parasites. Virus
natural history is modestly claimed to be of much intrinsic interest, and the validity of this
claim is apparent in the first few pages. In subsequent chapters we are taken to look at
“ the occurrence of colds in polar explorers, at the biting habits of mosquitoes in jungle
tree-tops, at caves full of quarrelling bats, at nestling herons in Japan and at cancers in
white mice ”. Apart from over forty photo- and micro-graphs we find rather whimsical
drawings of monkeys in trees or sneezing pigs, which add relish to the easily digested prose.
The appendices include schemes of classification, bibliography and a glossary that is of
great reassurance to the less knowledgeable reader.
This is a book that makes compulsive reading and ought to be made compulsory reading
for biological and medical undergraduates. One such student of bacteriology read it three
times in a month for sheer pleasure.
D. E. NICHOLSON
Viruses of vertebrates
By Sir CHRISTOPHER
ANDREWES
and H. G. FEREIRA.
2nd ed., 1967. London: Bailli&re,
Tindall and Cassell Ltd. Pp. xiv and 432. E3, 10s.
The preface to the second edition of this book states that the “ Viruses of vertebrates ”
hopes to serve three purposes: (1) to enable facts concerning individual viruses to be located
rapidly, (2) to aid in identifying unknown viruses-a purpose similar to that provided for
bacteriologists by Bergey’s manual, and (3) to arrange related viruses into groups and hence
aid classification.
The book is divided into three parts: the first concerning RNA-containing viruses, the
second DNA-containing viruses and the third those viruses not sufficiently studied to permit
even the broad classification either into DNA- or RNA-containing viruses. Some of the
agents described in the final section may be shown eventually not to be viruses.
The fundamental details of morphology, chemical and physicochemical properties and
biological properties are presented and the cultivation, symptomatology and natural occurrence are also described. Thus the over-all information contained in this book is considerable
and is invaluable reference material to all working in virology whether the interest is in
basic or disease aspects of the subject.
The book, therefore, satisfies the fist two conditions mentioned in the preface. With
respect to the third purpose-a partial classification of viruses-the viruses are arranged in
groups showing related properties, but a classification of viruses must take into account the
nature of the relationship of these virus groups to other viruses. This book, therefore, will
probably contribute more to a general classification of viruses by its drawing together of
available information rather than by its arrangement.
Finally, though I thoroughly recommend the second edition of this book as a reference
book on vertebrate viruses, I hope any further edition will wait more than another three
years.
A. BUCHAN
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