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RIFE'S
MICROSCOPE
THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT
From
the Annual Report of the Board of Regents of
The Smithsonian Institution - 1944
The
Universal Microscope
It is only a
reasonable supposition, but already, in one instance, a very
successful and highly commendable achievement on the part of Dr.
Royal Raymond Rife of San Diego, California, who, for many
years, has built and worked with light microscopes which far
surpass the theoretical limitations of the ordinary variety of
instrument, all the Rife scopes possessing superior ability to
attain high magnification with accompanying high resolution.
The largest and
most powerful of these, the Universal Microscope, developed in
1933, consists of 5,682 parts and is so called because of its
adaptability in all fields of microscopical work, being fully
equipped with separate substage condenser units for transmitted
and monochromatic beam dark-field, polarized, and slit-ultra
illumination, including also a special device for
crystallography. The entire optical system of lenses and prisms
as well as the illuminating units are made of block-crystal
quartz, quartz being especially transparent to ultraviolet
radiations.
This
illuminating unit used for examining the filterable forms of
disease organisms contains 14 lenses and prisms, 3 of which are
in the high-intensity incandescent lamp, 4 in the Risley prism,
and 7 in the achromatic condenser which, incidentally, has a
numerical aperture of 1.40. Between the source of light and the
specimen are subtended two circular, wedge-shaped, block-crystal
quartz prisms for the purpose of polarizing the light passing
through the specimen, polarization being the practical
application of the theory that light waves vibrate in all planes
perpendicular to the direction in which they are propagated.
Therefore, when
light comes into contact with a polarizing prism, it is divided
or split into two beams, one of which is refracted to such an
extent that it is reflected to the side of the prism without, of
course, passing through the prism while the second ray, bent
considerably less, is thus enabled to pass through the prism to
illuminate the specimen.
When the quartz
prisms on the universal microscope, which may be rotated with
vernier control through 360 degrees, are rotated in opposite
directions, they serve to bend the transmitted beams of light at
variable angles of incidence while, at the same time, a spectrum
is projected up into the axis of the microscope, or rather a
small portion of the spectrum to the other, going all the way
from the infrared to the ultraviolet.
NOW, WHEN THAT
PORTION OF THE SPECTRUM IS REACHED IN WHICH BOTH THE ORGANISM
AND THE COLOR BAND VIBRATE IN EXACT ACCORD, ONE WITH THE OTHER,
A DEFINITE CHARACTERISTIC SPECTRUM IS EMITTED BY THE ORGANISM.
In the case of
the filter-passing form of the BACILLUS TYPHOSUS, for instance,
A BLUE SPECTRUM IS EMITTED AND THE PLANE OF POLARIZATION
DEVIATED PLUS (+) 4.8 DEGREES.
The
predominating chemical constituents of the organism are next
ascertained after which the quartz prisms are adjusted or set,
by means of vernier control, to minus (-) 4.8 degrees (again in
the case of the filter-passing form of the BACILLUS TYPHOSUS) so
that the opposite angle of refraction may be obtained.
A MONOCHROMATIC
BEAM OF LIGHT, CORRESPONDING **EXACTLY** TO THE FREQUENCY OF THE
ORGANISM (for Dr.Rife has found that EACH DISEASE ORGANISM
RESPONDS TO AND HAS A DEFINITE AND DISTINCT WAVE LENGTH, a fact
confirmed by British medical research workers) IS THEN SENT UP
THROUGH THE SPECIMEN AND THE DIRECT TRANSMITTED LIGHT, THUS
ENABLING THE OBSERVER TO VIEW THE ORGANISM STAINED IN ITS TRUE
CHEMICAL COLOR and revealing ITS OWN INDIVIDUAL STRUCTURE IN A
FIELD WHICH IS BRILLIANT WITH LIGHT.
The objectives
used on the universal microscope are a 1.12 dry lens, a 1.16
water immersion, a 1.18 oil immersion, and a 1.25 oil immersion.
The rays of light refracted by the specimen enter the objective
and are then carried up the tube IN PARALLEL RAYS through 21
light bends to the ocular, A TOLERANCE OF LESS THAN ONE WAVE
LENGTH OF VISIBLE LIGHT ONLY BEING PERMITTED IN THE CORE BEAM,
OR CHIEF RAY, OF ILLUMINATION.
Now, instead of
the light rays starting up the tube in a parallel fashion,
TENDING TO CONVERGE AS THEY RISE HIGHER AND FINALLY CROSSING
EACH OTHER,arriving at the ocular SEPARATED BY CONSIDERABLE
DISTANCE as would be the case with an ordinary microscope, IN
THE UNIVERSAL TUBE THE RAYS ALSO START THEIR RISE PARALLEL TO
EACH OTHER BUT, JUST AS THEY ARE ABOUT TO PULL THEM OUT PARALLEL
AGAIN, ANOTHER PRISM BEING INSERTED EACH TIME THE RAYS ARE ABOUT
READY TO CROSS.
These prisms,
inserted in the tube, which are adjusted and held in alignment
by micrometer screws of 100 threads to the inch in special
tracks made of magnelium (magnelium having the closest
coefficient of expansion of any metal to quartz), are separated
by a distance OF ONLY 30 MILLIMETERS.
Thus, THE
GREATEST DISTANCE THAT THE IMAGE in the universal microscope IS
PROJECTED THROUGH ANY ONE MEDIA, EITHER QUARTZ OR AIR, IS 30
MILLIMETERS INSTEAD OF THE 160, 180, OR 190 MILLIMETERS as in
the empty or air-filled tubes of an ordinary microscope, the
total distance which the light rays travel ZIGZAG FASHION
through the universal tube being 449 MILLIMETERS, although the
physical length of the tube itself is 229 millimeters.
It will be
recalled that if one pierces a black strip of paper or cardboard
with the point of a needle and then brings the card up close to
the eye so that the hole is in the optic axis, a small
brilliantly lighted object will appear LARGER AND CLEARER,
REVEALING MORE FINE DETAIL, than if it were viewed from the same
distance without the assistance of the card.
This is
explained by the fact that the beam of light passing through the
card is very narrow, the rays entering the eye, therefore, being
practically parallel, whereas without the card the beam of light
is much wider and the DIFFUSION CIRCLES MUCH LARGER. It is this
principle of parallel rays in the universal microscope and the
resultant shortening of projection distance between any two
blocks or prisms plus the fact that objectives can thus be
substituted for oculars, these "oculars" being THREE
MATCHED PAIRS OF 10-MILLIMETER, 7-MILLIMETER, AND 4-MILLIMETER
OBJECTIVES IN SHORT MOUNTS, which would make possible not only
the unusually high magnification and resolution but which SERVE
TO ELIMINATE ALL DISTORTION AS WELL AS ALL CHROMATIC AND
SPHERICAL ABERRATION.
Quartz slides
with especially thin quartz cover glasses are used when a tissue
section or culture slant is examined, the tissue section itself
also being very thin. An additional observational tube and
ocular which yield a magnification of 1,800 diameters are
provided so that that portion of the specimen which is desired
to be examined may be located so that the observer can adjust
himself more readily when viewing a section at a high
magnification.
The universal
stage is a double rotating stage graduated through 360 degrees
in quarter-minute arc divisions, the upper segment carrying the
mechanical stage having a movement of 40 degrees, plus or minus.
Heavily constructed joints and screw adjustments maintain
rigidity of the microscope which weighs 200 pounds and stands 24
inches high, the bases of the scope being nickel cast-steel
plates, accurately surfaced, and equipped with three leveling
screws and two spirit levels set at angles of 90 degrees. The
coarse adjustment, a block thread screw with 40 threads to the
inch, slides in a 1 1/2 dovetail which gibes directly onto the
pillar post.The weight of the quadruple nosepiece and the
objective system is taken care of by the intermediate adjustment
at the top of the body tube. The stage, in conjunction with a
hydraulic lift, acts as a lever in operating the fine
adjustment. A 6-gauge screw having 100 threads to the inch is
worked through a gland into a hollow, glycerine-filled post, the
glycerine being displaced and replaced at will as the screw is
turned clockwise or anticlockwise, allowing a 5-to-1 ratio on
the lead screw. This, accordingly, assures complete absence of
drag and inertia. The fine adjustment being 700 times more
sensitive then that of ordinary microscopes, the length of time
required to focus the universal ranges up to 1 1/2 hours which,
while on first consideration, may seem a disadvantage, is after
all but a slight inconvenience when compared with the many years
of research and the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent and
being spent in an effort to isolate and to look upon
disease-causing organisms in their true form.
Working
together back in 1931 and using one of the smaller Rife
microscope having a magnification and resolution of 17,000
diameters, Dr. Rife and Dr. Arthur Isaac Kendall, of the
department of bacteriology of Northwestern University Medical
School, were able to observe and demonstrate the presence of the
filter-passing forms of BACILLUS TYPHOSUS. An agar slant culture
of the Rawlings strain of BACILLUS TYPHOSUS was first prepared
by Dr. Kendall and inoculated into 6 cc of "Kendall" K
Medium, a medium rich in protein but poor in peptone and
consisting of 100 mg.of dried hog intestine and 6 cc of tyrode
solution (containing neither glucose nor glycerine) which
mixture is shaken well so as to moisten the dried intestine
powder and then sterilized in the autoclave, 15 pounds for 15
minutes, alterations of the medium being frequently necessary
depending upon the requirements for different organisms. Now,
after a period of 18 hours in this K Medium, the culture was
passed through a Berkefeld "N" filter, a drop of the
filtrate being added to another 6 cc. of K Medium and incubated
at 37 degrees C. Forty-eight hours later this same process was
repeated, the "N" filter again being used, after which
it was noted that the culture no longer responded to peptone
medium, growing now only in the protein medium. When again,
within 24 hours, the culture was passed through a filter-the
finest Berkefeld "W" filter, a drop of the filtrate
was once more added to 6 cc.of K Medium and incubated at 37
degrees c., a period of 3 days elapsing before a new culture was
transferred to K Medium and yet another 3 days before a new
culture was prepared. Then, viewed under an ordinary microscope,
these cultures were observed to be turbid and to reveal no
bacilli whatsoever. When viewed by means of dark-field
illumination and oil-immersion lens, however, the presence of
small, actively motile granules was established, although
nothing at all of their individual structure could be
ascertained. Another period of 4 days was allowed to elapse
before these cultures were transferred to K Medium and incubated
at 37 degrees C for 24 hours when they were then examined under
the Rife microscope where, as was mentioned earlier, the
filterable typhoid bacilli, emitting a blue spectrum, caused the
plane of polarization to be deviated plus 4.8 degrees. Then when
the opposite angle of refraction was obtained by means of
adjusting the polarizing prisms to minus 4.8 degrees and the
cultures illuminated by a monochromatic beam coordinated in
frequency with the chemical constituents of the typhoid
bacillus, small oval actively motile, bright turquoise-blue
bodies were observed at a magnificatinn of 5,000 diameters, in
high contrast to the colorless and motionless debris of the
medium. These observations were repeated eight times, the
complete absence of these bodies in uninoculated control K Media
also being noted.
To further
confirm their findings, Drs. Rife and Kendall next examined
18-hour-old cultures which had been inoculated into K Medium and
incubated at 37 degrees C., since it is just at this stage of
growth in this medium and at this temperature that the cultures
become filterable. And, just as had been anticipated, ordinary
dark-field examination revealed unchanged, long, actively motile
bacilli; bacilli having granules within their substance; and
free-swimming, actively motile granules; while under the Rife
microscope were demonstrated the same long, unchanged, almost
colorless bacilli; bacilli, practically colorless, inside and at
one end of which was a turquoise-blue granule resembling the
filterable forms of the typhoid bacillus; and free-swimming,
small, oval, actively motile,turquoise-blue granules. By
transplanting the cultures of the filter-passing organisms or
virus into a broth, they were seen to change over again into
their original rodlike forms.
At the same
time that these findings of Drs. Rife and Kendall were confirmed
by Dr. Edward C. Rosenow, of the Mayo Foundation, the
magnification with accompanying resolution of 8,000 diameters of
the Rife microscope, operated by Dr. Rife, was checked against a
dark-field oil-immersion scope operated by Dr. Kendall and an
ordinary 2-mm. oil-immersion objective, x 10 ocular, Zeiss scope
operated by Dr.Rosenow at a magnification of 900 diameters.
Examinations of gram and safranin-stained films of culture of
Bacillus typhosus, gram and safranin-stained films of blood and
of the sediment of the spinal fluid from a case of acute
poliomyelitis were made with the result that bacilli,
streptococci, erythrocytes, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and
lymphocytes measuring nine times the diameter of the same
specimens observed under the Zeiss scope at a magnification and
resolution of 900 diameters, were revealed with unusual clarity.
Seen under the dark-field microscope were moving bodies presumed
to be the filterable turquois-blue bodies of the typhoid
bacillus which, as Dr.Rosenow has declared in his report
(Observations on filter-passing forms of
Eberthella-typhi-Bacillus typhosus - and of the streptococcus
from poliomyelitis, Proc.Staff Meeting Mayo Clinic, July 13,
1932), were so "unmistakably demonstrated" with Rife
microscope, while under the Zeiss scope stained and hanging-drop
preparations of clouded filtrate culture were found to be
uniformly negative. With the Rife microscope also were
demonstrated brownish-gray cocci and diplococci in hanging-drop
preparations of the filtrates of streptococcus from
poliomyelitis. These cocci and diplococci, similar in size and
shape to those seen in the culture although of more uniform
intensity, and characteristic of the medium in which they had
been cultivated, were surrounded by a clear halo about twice the
width of that at the margins of the debris and of the Bacillus
typhosus.Stained films of filtrates and filtrate sediments
examined under the Zeiss microscope, and hanging-drop,
dark-field preparations revealed no organisms, however.
Brownish-gray cocci and diplococci of the exact same size and
density as those observed in the filtrates of the streptococcus
cultures were also revealed in hanging-drop preparations of the
virus of poliomyelitis underthe Rife microscope, while no
organisms at all could be seen in either the stained films of
filtrates and filtrate sediments examined with the Zeiss scope
or in hanging-drop preparations examined by means of the
dark-field. Again using the Rife microscope at a magnification
of 8,000 diameters, numerous nonmotile cocci and diplococci of a
bright-to-pale pink in color were seen in hanging-drop
preparations of filtrates of Herpes encephalitic virus. Although
these were observed to be comparatively smaller then the cocci
and diplococci of the streptococcus and poliomyelitis viruses,
they were shown to be of fairly even density, size and form and
surrounded by a halo. Again, both the dark-field and Zeiss
scopes failed to reveal any organisms, and none of the three
microscopes disclosed the presence of such diplococci in
hanging-drop preparation of the filtrate of a normal rabbit
brain. Dr. Rosenow has since revealed these organisms with the
ordinary microscope at a magnification of 1,000 diameters by
means of his special staining method and with the electron
microscope at a magnification of 12,000 diameters. Dr. Rosenow
has expressed the opinion that the inability to see these and
other similarly revealed organisms is due, not necessarily to
the minuteness of the organisms, but rather to the fact that
they are of a nonstaining, hyaline structure. Results with the
Rife microscopes, he thinks, are due to the "ingenious
methods employed rather than to excessively high
magnification." He has declared also, in the report
mentioned previously, that "Examination under the Rife
microscope of specimens containing objects visible with the
ordinary microscope, leaves no doubt of the accurate
visualization of objects or particulate matter by direct
observation at the extremely high magnification obtained with
this instrument."
Exceedingly
high powers of magnification with accompanying high powers of
resolution may be realized with all of the Rife microscopes, one
of which, having magnification and resolution up to 18,000
diameters, is now being used at the British School of Tropical
Medicine in England. In a recent demonstration of another of the
smaller Rife scopes (May 16, 1942) before a group of doctors
including Dr. J.H. Renner, of Santa Barbara, Calif.; Dr. Roger
A. Schmidt, of San Francisco, Calif.; Dr. Lois Bronson Slade, of
Alameda, Calif.; Dr. Lucile B. Larkin, of Bellingham, Wash.; Dr.
E. F. Larkin, of Bellingham, Wash.; and Dr. W. J. Gier, of San
Diego, Calif., a Zeiss ruled grading was examined, first under
an ordinary commercial microscope equipped with a 1.8 high dry
lens and X 10 ocular, and then under the Rife microscope.
Whereas 50 lines were revealed with the commercial instrument
and considerable aberration, both chromatic and spherical noted,
only 5 lines were seen with the Rife scope, these 5 lines being
so highly magnified that they occupied the entire field, without
any aberration whatsoever being apparent. Dr. Renner, in a
discussion of his observations, stated that "The entire
field to its very edges and across the center had a uniform
clearness that was not true on the conventional
instrument." Following the examination of the grading, an
ordinary unstained blood film was observed under the same two
microscopes. In this instance, 100 cells were seen to spread
throughout the field of the commercial instrument while but 10
cells filled the field of the Rife scope.
The universal
microscope, of course, is the most powerful Rife scope,
possessing a resolution of 31,000 diameters and magnification of
60,000 diameters. With this it is possible to view the interior
of the 'pin-point' cells, those cells situated between the
normal tissue cells and just visible under the ordinary
microscope, and to observe the smaller cells which compose the
interior of these pin-point cells. When one of these smaller
cells in magnified, still smaller cells are seen within its
structure. And when one of the still smaller cells, in its turn,
is magnified, it, too, is seen to be composed of smaller cells.
Each of the 16 times this process of magnification and
resolution can be repeated, it is demonstrated that there are
smaller cells within the smaller cells, a fact which amply
testifies as to the magnification and resolving power obtainable
with the universal microscope.
More then
20,000 laboratory cultures of carcinoma were grown and studied
over a period of 7 years by Dr. Rife and his assistants in what,
at the time, appeared to be a fruitless effort to isolate the
filter-passing form, or virus, which Dr. Rife believed to be
present in this condition. Then, in 1932, the reactions in
growth of bacterial cultures to light from the rare gasses was
observed, indicating a new approach to the problem. Accordingly,
blocks of tissue one-half centimeter square, taken from an
unulcerated breast carcinoma, were placed in a circular glass
loop filled with argon gas to a pressure of 14 millimeters, and
a current of 5,000 volts applied for 24 hours, after which the
tubes were placed in a 2-inch water vacuum and incubated at 37
degrees C. for 24 hours. Using a specially designed 1.12 dry
lens, equal in amplitude of magnification to the 2-mm.
apochromatic oil-immersion lens, the cultures were then examined
under the universal microscope, at a magnification of 10,000
diameters, where very much animated, purplish-red, filterable
forms, measuring less then one-twentieth of a micron in
dimension, were observed. Carried through 14 transplants from K
Medium to K Medium, this B. X. virus remained constant;
inoculated into 426 Albino rats, tumors "with all the true
pathology of neoplastic tissue" were developed. Experiments
conducted in the Rife Laboratories have established the fact
that these characteristic diplococci are found in the blood
monocytes in 92 percent of all cases of neoplastic diseases. It
has also been demonstrated that the virus of cancer, like the
viruses of other diseases, can be easily changed from one form
to another by means of altering the media upon which it is
grown. With the first change in media, the B. X. virus becomes
considerably enlarged although its purplish-red color remains
unchanged.
Observation of
the organism with an ordinary microscope is made possible by a
second alteration of the media. A third change is undergone upon
asparagus base media where the B. X. virus is transformed from
its filterable state into cryptomyces pleomorphia fungi, these
fungi being identical morphologically both microscopically to
that of the orchid and of the mushroom. And yet a fourth change
may be said to take place when this cryptomyces pleomorphia,
permitted to stand as a stock culture for the period of
metastasis, becomes the well-known mahogany-colored Bacillus
coli.
It is Dr.
Rife's belief that all micro-organisms fall into 1 of not more
then 10 individual groups (Dr. Rosenow has stated that some of
the viruses belong to the group of the streptococcus), and that
any alteration of artificial media of slight metabolic variation
in tissues will induce an organism of one group to change over
into any other organism included in that same group, it being
possible, incidentally, to carry such changes in media or
tissues to the point where the organisms fail to respond to
standard laboratory methods of diagnosis. These changes can be
made to take place in as short a period of time as 48 hours. For
instance, by altering the media - 4 parts per million per volume
- the pure culture of mahogany-colored Bacillus coli becomes the
turquoise-blue Bacillus typhosus. Viruses of primordial cells of
organisms which would ordinarily require an 8-week incubation
period to attain their filterable state, have been shown to
produce disease within 3 days' time, proving Dr. Rife's
contention that the incubation period of a micro-organism is
really only a cycle of reversion.
He states:
"In
reality, it is not the bacteria themselves that produce the
disease, but we believe it is the chemical constituents of
these micro-organisms enacting upon the unbalanced cell
metabolism of the human body that in actuality produce the
disease. We also believe if the metabolism of the human body
is perfectly balanced or poised, it is susceptible to no
disease."
In other words,
the human body itself is chemical in nature, being comprised of
many chemical elements which provide the media upon which the
wealth of bacteria normally present in the human system feed.
These bacteria are able to reproduce. They, too, are composed of
chemicals. Therefore, if the media upon which they feed, in this
instance the chemicals or some portion of the chemicals of the
human body, become changed from the normal, it stands to reason
that these same bacteria, or at least certain numbers of them,
will also undergo a change chemically since they are now feeding
upon media which are not normal to them, perhaps being supplied
with too much or too little of what they need to maintain a
normal existence. They change, passing usually through several
stages of growth, emerging finally as some entirely new entity -
as different morphologically as are the caterpillar and the
butterfly (to use an illustration given us). The majority of the
viruses have been definitely revealed as living organisms,
foreign organisms it is true, but which once were normal
inhabitants of the human body -living entities of a chemical
nature of composition.
Under the
universal microscope disease organisms such as those of
tuberculosis, cancer, sarcoma, streptococcus, typhoid,
staphylococcus, leprosy, hoof and mouth disease, and others may
be observed to succumb when exposed to certain lethal
frequencies, coordinated with the particular frequencies
peculiar to each individual organism, and directed upon them by
rays covering a wide range of waves. By means of a camera
attachment and a motion-picture camera not built into the
instrument, many "still" micrographs as well as
hundreds of feet of motion-picture film bear witness to the
complete life cycles of numerous organisms. It should be
emphasized, perhaps, that invariably the same organisms refract
the same colors. when stained by means of the monochromatic beam
of illumination of the universal microscope, regardless of the
media upon which they re grown. The virus of the Bacillus
typhosus is always a turquoise blue, the Bacillus coli always
mahogany colored, the Mycobacterium leprae always a ruby shade,
the filter-passing form of virus of tuberculosis always an
emerald green, the virus of cancer always a purplish red, and so
on. Thus, with the aid of this microscope, it is possible to
reveal the typhoid organism, for instance, in the blood of a
suspected typhoid patient 4 and 5 days before a Widal is
positive. When it is desired to observe the flagella of the
typhoid-organism, Hg salts are used as the medium to see at a
magnification of 10,000 diameters.
In the light of
the amazing results obtainable with this universal microscope
and its smaller brother scopes, there can be no doubt of the
ability of these instruments to actually reveal any and all
microorganisms according to their individual structure and
chemical constituents.
With the aid of
its new eyes - the new microscopes, all of which are continually
being improved - science has at last penetrated beyond the
boundary of accepted theory and into the world of the viruses
with the result that we can look forward to discovering new
treatments and methods of combating the deadly organisms - for
science dose not rest.
To Dr. Karl K.
Darrow, Dr. John A. Kolmer, Dr. William P. Lang, Dr. L. Marton,
Dr. J. H. Renner, Dr. Royal R. Rife, Dr. Edward C. Rosenow, Dr.
Arthur W. Yale, and Dr. V. K. Zworykin, we wish to express our
appreciation for the help and information so kindly given us and
to express our gratitude, also, for the interest shown in this
effort of bringing to the attention of more of the medical
profession the possibilities offered by the new microscopes.
DISCUSSION:
OBSERVATIONS
WITH THE RIFE MICROSCOPE
OF FILTER-PASSING FORMS OF MICROORGANISMS
by
Edward C. Rosenow, Rochester, Minnesota
Recently, I
reported to the staff of the Mayo Clinic the more important
observation made during three days, July 5, 6 and 7, 1932, spent
in Dr.Kendall's laboratory at Northwestern University Medical
School, Chicago. I went there at the invitation of Drs. Kendall
and Rife, to share with them their observations in a restudy of
the filter-passing forms of Eberthella typhi as seen with an
improved model of the Rife microscope. They asked me also to
bring with me my cultures of the streptococcus from
poliomyelitis.
I would like to
repeat here that portion of my report which had to do
specifically with the Rife microscope.
Owing to the
novel and important character of the work, each of us verified
at every step the results obtained. Microscopic examinations of
suitable specimens was made as a routine by Dr. Rife with his
high-power microscope, by Dr.Kendall with the oil immersion dark
field, and by myself with the ordinary Zeiss microscope equipped
with a 2 mm apochromatic oil immersion lens and 100 X 10 ocular
giving a magnification of about 90 diameters. Most observations
with the Rife microscope were made at 8,000 diameters. In order
to check the magnification, gram and safranin stained films of
cultures of Eberthella typhi, of the streptococcus from
poliomyelitis, and stained films of blood, and of the sediment
of the spinal fluid from a case of acute poliomyelitis were
examined. Bacilli, streptococci, erythrocytes, polymorphonuclear
leukoeytes and lymphocytes were clearly seen, and in each
instance were, as nearly as could be examined with the 2 mm oil
immersion at about 900 diameters.
The following
principles and methods were stated by Dr. Rife as being
essential in order to visualize clearly the objects at this and
higher magnifications by direct observation. Spherical
aberration is reduced to the minimum and magnification greatly
increased by using objectives in place of oculars. Proper
visualization, especially of unstained objects, is obtained by
the use of an intense beam of monochromatic polarized light
created by rotating wedge-shaped quartz prisms placed between
the source of light and the substage quartz condenser.
Dispersion of the transmitted rays of light, as they pass upward
to the eye, is prevented by passing them through a series of
quartz erecting (90 degrees) prisms. Projection of the rays of
light through air is not greater tan 30 mm at any point.
In my original
report I summarized as follows:
"There
can be no question of the existence of the filterable
turquoise blue bodies of Eberthella-typhi described by
Kendall. They are not visible by ordinary methods of
illumination and magnification, not because they are too
small. but rather, it appears, because of their peculiar
non-staining hyalin structure. Their visualization under the
Rife microscope is due to the ingenious methods employed
rather than to excessively high magnification. Examination
under the Rife microscope of specimens, containing objects
visible with the ordinary microscope, leaves no doubt of the
accurate visualization of objects or particulate matter by
direct observation at the extremely high magnification
(calculated to be 8,000 diameters) obtained with this
instrument."
The findings
under the Rife microscope of cocci and diplococci in filtrated
cultures of the streptococcus from poliomyelitis, and in
filtrates of the streptococcus from poliomyelitis, and herpes
encephalitis, not detectable by the ordinary methods of
examination, and which resembled in form and size those found in
the respective cultures, and the absence of minute forms,
suggest that the filterable, inciting agent of these diseases is
not necessarily extremely small, as is universally believed.
Indeed, the filterable, inciting agent may be the non-staining,
highly plastic, hyaline stage of the visible, stainable,
cultivable organism, the streptococcus.
It is, of
course, possible that these unstained, invisible forms revealed
by ordinary methods of examination are not the inciting agents
or 'viruses' of these diseases and that they represent merely
the filterable or other state of the streptococcus. A
consideration of the great difficulty one has in isolating the
streptococcus and demonstrating diplococci in lesions in these
diseases and the ease with which the bodies are found in the
filtrate indicate clearly that the `invisible' forms of the
streptococcus, if such they be, are present in large numbers in
the host, as in positive cultures of the streptococcus. Their
form, size and color are too characteristic and true to type to
permit considering the masarti factsor as being expressive of
etiologically unrelated, contaminating streptococci.
Noninfectivity of the filter-passing forms, except in the cases
of virus diseases, their presence in large numbers in filtrates,
both of cultures and of infected tissues, and the great
difficulty in obtaining the visible forms in cultures of
filtrates indicate that "invisible," filter-passing
forms represent a certain stage in the development of
microorganisms
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