SMITH, WILSON

(b. Great Harwood, Lancashire, England, 21 June 1897; d. Newbury. Berkshire, England, 10July 1965)

microbiology.

Smith, whose father, John Howard Smith, kept a small retail drapery shop, grew up in a modest and serious-minded environment. This upbringing had a lasting influence on him, and he remained throughout his life a most earnest person with an intense devotion to his work. He served as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I, an experience that determined his career in medicine. He qualified at Manchester University in 1923 and afterward practiced medicine for three years. From 1926 to 1927 he took his diploma in bacteriology at Manchester under W. W. C. Topley, who was mainly responsible for Smith’s interest in medical research.

In 1927 Smith married Muriel Nutt. one of Topley’s demonstrators, and moved to the National Institute for Medical Research in London. Here he associated with many notable scientists, including H. H. Dale. S. R. Douglas, Percival Hartley, Clifford Dohell, P. P. Laidlaw. and C. H. Andrewes, and entered what was then a comparatively new field, the study of viruses. In 1939 he became professor of bacteriology at Sheffield University and in 1946 returned to London as professor of bacteriology at University College Hospital Medical School. In 1960 he retired but continued his researches at the Microbiological Research Establiahment, poron. and gave up working only a few months before his death.

At the National Institute for Medical Research, Smith first worked with vaccinia and herpes viruses directing his researches toward elucidating mechanisms of protection that immunized animals acquire against viral infections (1, 2, 3, 4). But is most important contribution to virology concerned influenza. Intensive efforts were being made National Institute to isolate the influenza virus, and many different species of animals were being inoculated with the throat garglings from suspected cases and also with ling material from fatal cases. No success was achieved until Smith decided to inoculate ferrets intranasally. The first isolation of influenza virus was made in February 1933, when two ferrets were inoculated with throat washings from Andrewes, who had suffered a serious attack of influenza. Unfortunately this strain of influensa virus was lost, because of an outbreak of distemper in the ferrets, but a month later Smith himself had influenza. It was suspected he had caught it from a ferret, and the virus was isolated from his thoat garglings by inoculating them into ferrets, The WS strain still remains one of the classic strains (5).

The isolation of the influenza virus opened up a wide field of work at the institute, most of it being shared by Laidlaw, Smith, and Andrewes. It was shown that the virus can be serially transmitted in ferrets and that virus material from infected ferrets can infect mice on intranasal inoculation. This finding led to the development of methods of determining the degree of infectivity of viral material and of estimating the neutralizing antibody present in human sera. Further, it was shown that the virus can grow in fertile eggs and in tissue culture and that there are antigenic differences between strains of virus (6–16).

Smith’s work in virology was interrupted by his move to Sheffield in 1939 and by the administrative responsibilities he took on because of the war and also by a heavy load of teaching. On returning to London in 1946. he again worked in virology and led a team of young workers, many of whom now hold important positions in microbiology.

Smith became one of the leading virologist in the United Kingdom; and his advice was sought. by many institutions, including the Medical Research Council, the Ministry of Health, the Agricultural Research Council, and the Microbiologies Research Establishment. The value of his work was widely recognized, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London (1949) and of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1959).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of Smith’s works is given by D. G. Evans in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 12 (1966), 479–487. Among those mentioned above are:

1. “The Distribution of Virus and Neutralizing Anties in the Blood and Pathological Exudates of Rabbits Infected With Vaccinia,” in British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 10 (1929), 93–95.

2. “Generalized Vaccinia in Rabbits With Especial Reference to Lesions in the Internal Organs.“in Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology, 32 (1929), 99–100, written with Douglas and Price.

3. “A Study of Vaccinal Immunity in Rabbits by Means of in vitro Methods,” in British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 11 (1930), 96–99, written with Douglas.

4. “Specific Antibody Absorption by Viruses of Vaccinia and Herpes,” in Journal of Pathology and Bacteriotogy, 33 (1930), 273–276.

5. “A Virus Obtained from Influenza Patients,” in Lancet (1933), 2, 66–68, written with Andrewes and Laidlaw.

6. “The Susceptibility of Mice to the Viruses of Human and Swine Influenza,” ibid (1934), 859–864, written with Andrewes and Laidlaw.

7. “Cultivation of the Virus of Influenza,” in British Journal of Experimental Pathology16 (1935), 508–511.

8. “Influenza: The Preparation of Immune Sera in Horses,” ihid., 275–282, written with Laidlaw et al.

9. “Influenza: Experiments on the Immunization of ferrets and Mice,” ibid., 291–301. written with Andrewes and Laidlaw.

10. “Influenza: Observations on the Recovery of us Virus From Man and on the Antibody Content of Human Sera,” ibid., 566–568, written with Andrewes and Laidlaw.

11. “Influenza Infection of Man from the Ferrel,” in Lancet (1936), 2 . 121–125, written with Stuart-Harris.

12. “The Complement Fixation Reaction in Influenza” ibid., 1256–1258.

13. “Influenza: Further Experiments on the Active Immunization of Mice,” in British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 18 (1937). 43–46. written with Andrewes.

14. “Immunoiogical Observation on Experimental Influenza,” in Proceedings of the International Congress of Microbiology (1937), 107–110.

15. “A Study of Epidemic Influenza: With Special Reference to the 1936–1937 Epidemic,” Report of the Medical Research Council, no. 228 (1938), written with Stuart-Harris and Andrewes.

16. “Serological Races of Influenza Virus,” in British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 19 (1938), 293–297.

D. G. Evans