Biting Phages

Big fleas have little fleas

Upon their backs to bite 'em

And little fleas have lesser fleas

And so ad infinitum.

Close to the fleas' infinitum are the phages which Dr. Felix d'Hrelle, professor of protobiology at Yale, described last week to the Society of American Bacteriologists at Baltimore. Phages behave as though they bite germs.

In 1918 Dr. d'Hrelle described the existence of something, invisible to microscopes, which seemed to feed on and alter the existence of various types of disease bacteria. He called this something a phage. Last week after innumerable experiments whither he was beguiled from Egyptian researches, he was prepared to restate his original, but widely questioned belief that a phage was not a chemical but a living organism. A disease germ attacked by a phage goes mad. Its heredity changes; it usually becomes harmless. Unfortunately, some phaged germs develop into something even more virulent.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.