The Viral Discovery: How a Botanist Named Martinus Beijerinck Changed Medicine Forever
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
October 25, 1990
#OTD During this week in 1990, the Longview Newspaper shared a cautionary article about the upcoming flu season.
Buried in the story was this reminder:
"A hundred years ago, a Dutch botanist discovered a disease-carrying micro-organism smaller than bacteria and called it a virus, the Latin word for poison."
The unnamed botanist was Martinus Beijerinck (pronounced “by-a-rink”), who was searching for the reason tobacco plants were dying.
In his research, Beijerinck ground up some diseased tobacco leaves and then pressed the juices through a bacteria filter. He was utterly shocked when the filtered, bacteria-free liquid still spread the disease.
After reviewing his experiment, Beijerinck concluded that a "contagious living fluid" was the culprit, and he called it a virus.
Today, two of the most common viruses are the flu and the common cold.
