Phage Treaty

[Jim Endersby]

Hi. I'm a historian of science, currently writing a chapter on Phage for an introductory book on the history of biology, and I'm hoping someone may be able to help me.

In "Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology", Thomas Anderson describes the 1944 "Phage Treaty", by which the early phage workers adopted the T-series as the standard phage, together with a set of standardised lab protocols, etc. It appears from his account that Max Delbruck came up with these ideas and his prestige in the field was enough to get them adopted.

Several historians cite Anderson's account, but I've not found any others: does anyone know any more about this "Treaty"? Were there any dissenters or non-signatories? Did anyone feel Delbruck was being a bit high-handed?

Any additional information would be much appreciated.

[fstahl]

The Parisians (Lwoff, Jacob, Wollman) ignored Max's list, which was restricted to the T-phages, all virulent. (Max did not believe in lysogeny.)