An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

BEIJERINCK, Martinus Willem

2 entries
  • 2512

Ueber ein Contagium vivum fluidum als Ursache der Fleckenkrankheit der Tabaksblätter.

Verh. k. Acad. Wet. Amst., 65 (2), 3-21, 1898.

Beijerinck confirmed the findings of Ivanovski. He showed that the tobacco mosaic virus would diffuse through agar. "Like Ivanovsky before him and Adolf Mayer, predecessor at Wageningen, Beijerinck could not culture the filterable infectious agent; however, he concluded that the agent can replicate and multiply in living plants. He named the new pathogen virus to indicate its non-bacterial nature. Beijerinck asserted that the virus was somewhat liquid in nature, calling it "contagium vivum fluidum" (contagious living fluid). It was not until the first crystals of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) obtained by Wendell Stanley in 1935, the first electron micrographs of TMV produced in 1939 and the first X-ray crystallographic analysis of TMV performed in 1941 proved that the virus was particulate" (Wikipedia article on Martinus Beijerinck, accessed 5-2020).

Translation in Phytopathological Classics, 1942, No. 7.



Subjects: VIROLOGY, VIROLOGY › VIRUSES (by Family) › Virgaviridae › Tobacco Mosaic Virus
  • 12789

Über oligonitrophile Mikroben.

Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde, Infektionskrankheiten und Hygiene, Abt. II, 7, 561–582, 1901.

Discovery of nitrogen fixation, the process by which diatomic nitrogen gas is converted to ammonium ions and becomes available to plants. Bacteria perform nitrogen fixation, dwelling inside root nodules of certain plants (legumes). In addition to having discovered a biochemical reaction vital to soil fertility and agriculture, Beijerinck revealed this archetypical example of symbiosis between plants and bacteria.



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Ecology / Environment, MICROBIOLOGY › Environmental Microbiology