D'HÉRELLE, Félix Hubert (1873 – 1949)

d'Herrelle discovered a microbe-eating virus that he called "bacteriophage." He made his discovery independently of the work of Frederick Twort, which was published two years earlier. (See No. 2571).

D'Hérrelle cited several actual reports of successful treatment of bacterial infections by the injection of bacteriophages in animals and humans. These may be considered early attempts at direct gene transfer in vivo …

In this book d'Hérelle reported on the results of quantitative work based on the plaque-count, and dilution methods of assay that he invented. He described a three-step process for the life history of the bacteriophag…