100 YEARS AGO

It is a remarkable sign of the times when the head of a firm principally distinguished for the introduction into this country of American methods of dealing with drugs, i.e. by putting them up in new and convenient shapes and doses, goes out of his way to fit up extensive research laboratories. This is what Mr. Wellcome has done… A well-built modern house has been secured at No. 6 King Street, Snow Hill, and has been converted into a series of three commodious and well-fitted laboratories, a library and office, and a store-room and workshop. Each laboratory is self-contained and each is connected with the other and with the directors' office by means of telephones… Mr. Wellcome intends to carry on his laboratories in no narrow spirit; this means, I presume, that he has other views then the conversion of his business into a chemical manufacturing concern. Though much work is done towards the perfection of the firm's preparations, time has been found for several researches which have been published, and other work of this kind is in hand… All interested in the advance of chemistry, whether pure or applied, will wish Mr. Wellcome success, and also that he may find imitators among the numbers of firms who are meditating an advance in the direction of a more scientific method of conducting their manufactures.

From Nature 19 July 1900.

50 YEARS AGO

Crystalline inclusion bodies in tobacco plants infected by tobacco mosaic virus have been known since 1903, and circumstantial evidence has made it appear likely that these crystals are composed largely of the virus protein. The present work makes it appear even more likely than before that the crystals are pure virus protein, and shows the crystals to be of considerable interest from several quite different but related points of view. On account of the exceptionally large dimension of the protein particle, it has been possible for the first time to make, in part at least, a structure analysis of the crystal using visible light in a manner analogous to that of X-ray diffraction. As a result, it has been possible to settle the controversial question of the length of the rod-shaped virus particle in the living plant. Also, the interpretation of the appearance of the crystals, as seen with the microscope, leads to a theory of the formation of images of three-dimensional objects. M. H. F. Wilkins et al.

From Nature 22 July 1950.