Leeuwenhoek's Legatees and Beijerinck's Beneficiaries

Gerard van Doornum is professor emeritus of Clinical Virology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Ton van Helvoort studied at the University of Nijmegen. His 1993 thesis (Maastricht) is entitled Research styles in virus studies in the twentieth century. As an independent historian of science, he specializes in chemistry and medicine. Neeraja Sankaran trained as microbiologist and science writer before obtaining her PhD in the history of science and medicine at Yale University with the thesis Macfarlane Burnet and the nature of the bacteriophages, 1924-1937. She currently works as independent scholar and a freelance science writer and editor.

Acknowledgements

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Preface

Chapter 1
Origins in the dark: Virus diseases in the Netherlands before the discovery of viruses

Chapter 2
Redefining viruses: the development and reception of the virus concept in the Netherlands

Chapter 3
On the fringes: The Dutch work on viruses, 1900-1950

Chapter 4
From cell culture to the molecular revolution: the rise of medical virology and its organization

Chapter 5
Medical virology in the Netherlands after 1950. Laboratorries and institutes.

Chapter 6
Techniques and instruments: their introduction in The Netherlands and Dutch main contributions

Chapter 7
Dutch virology in the tropics: From colonial to international virology

Chapter 8
From cancer mice in the roaring twenties to oncogenes and signalling molecules in the booming nineties

Chapter 9
Virus vaccines and immunisation programmes

Chapter 10
Conclusions

List of institutes and laboratories

References

Index of Names

Index of subjects