Animal virology -- the study of viruses that prey on animals and human beings -- deserves
historical treatment if only because since the 1950s it has become one of the most
important fields in the biomedical sciences. Nowadays, it is central to the understanding of many
infectious diseases, including AIDS, and the non-infectious scourge of cancer. Yet the
development of the new animal virology -- "new" because it was a biological science as distinct
from an arm of clinical practice in medicine -- is richly suggestive not only because of its salient
importance to medicine but also historiographically. It provides an opportunity to examine the role
of several important issues in the development of modern biology, not least the interplay between
medical goals and the practice of basic science, the influence of patronage on scientific
development, and the role of methods, techniques, and research schools in the advancement of a
field
