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THE SOCIETY'S PROGRAMS are notable for providing an eclectic smorgasbord to a diverse audience. I hope you will find that true of this afternoon's session, "Virus Paleontology, Disease, and Evolution." I hope, also, that you will not find the organizers guilty of using a Christopher Morley "Lincoln's Doctor's Dog" marketing approach to enhance our Saturday afternoon's attendance. With a nod to the humanities, I open my brief introduction to the symposium with a poem-indeed, with what is purported to be the shortest poem in the English language.
Microbiology is a relatively new science, a little more than a century old, and most bacteria and viruses are incapable of prolonged survival in the environment. However, their ancient existence has left a legacy of clues in mummified human remains, pathognomically scarred bones, and ancient drawings of smallpox and poliomyelitis victims. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that our hypothetical microbes antedate our hypothetical Adam by millions of years.
If the historical records are murky, the paleontological records are not. Indeed, we shall hear that stretches of DNA in the human genome can be regarded as virus fossils carried also by sub-human primates whose evolution antedated ours.
Viruses, as the ultimate human parasites, are perhaps best known for the "hit and run" tactics of influenza and smallpox virusesproducers of acute and sometimes deadly epidemic infections that in most cases are acute, self-limited, and...