SUMMARY: Twenty-three preparations of vaccinia virus and 5 of cowpox virus were examined by electron microscopy of spray droplets and by infectivity titrations at various stages of purification. Extraction of virus-containing tissues with a fluorocarbon compound was a useful early step in purification, but preparations of the highest purity were obtained by flocculation of the virus with M-NaCl. The average ratio of total particle count to infectivity for the vaccinia virus preparations was 12. The lowest observed ratio based on reliable particle counts was 3.4.During inactivation of vaccinia virus, a very small, but constant, fraction of infectivity was observed t o survive extremely high doses of gamma-radiation .In order to assess the likelihood of multiple reactivation being responsible for this persistence, it was necessary to know the ratio of infective units to total particle count in the type of virus preparation being irradiated. The two groups of published figures for vaccinia virus are not in close agreement, so several preparations of vaccinia virus, and a few of cowpox virus, were counted by electron microscopy and titrated for infectivity. The influence of various methods of purification on the preparations was also studied.
METHODS
Viruses.The vaccinia virus strains were all sublines of the Lister Institute vaccine strain. The rabbit dermal virus (RV) was a homogeneous line (Amies, 1938) in its 80th skin passage. Chick embryo adapted virus (LC) had been passed from 13 to 16 times in the chick embryo chorioallantois. Tissue culture virus (T) was taken from the first five batches of virus grown for smallpox vaccine preparation. This virus was a first passage of bacteriologically sterile RV in trypsinized chick embryo cells. The cozupoe virus was a strain lyophilized in 1939 and recently cultivated. Its history is unknown, but it produced typical haemorrhagic lesions in the chick embryo chorioallantois after 3 days of incubation.Diluent. All extractions and dilutions were made in McIlvaine's phosphate + citrate buffer (pH 7.2, 0.004 M-phosphate). Treatments with trypsin were done with Armour's crystalline, salt-free product.Extractions were made by mechanical disruption of the virus-infected tissues in a Servall 'Omnimix' homogenizer a t 14,000 rev./min. for 5 min., with an ice-bath round the stainless steel vessel. Trifluorotrichloroethane (Gessler,