Discovery of Tobacco Mosaic Virus Prof. Martinus Beijerinck
1886
1892
A.E. Mayer and D.I. Ivanovsky publish articles about the
1935
W.M. Stanley achieves crystallisation of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus
1939
G.A. Kausche et al. visualise the virus using electron microscopy
WHY
1898
Professor Beijerinck is credited with demonstrating that viruses exist and are biological because of his research on the Tobacco Mosaic Disease. Virology, as a discipline, is of obvious importance.
HOW
Tobacco Mosaic Disease
1895
M.W. Beijerinck is appointed Professor of Microbiology at the Delft Polytechnic School
| Dr. Lesley A. Robertson FRSB
His experiments demonstrated that the infectious agent could replicate in living plant cells and was thus not a chemical. He also proved that it was much smaller than known bacteria. He called it “contagium vivum fluidum�. 13