THE EARLY 1930s

In 1931, the two men who provided the greatest professional support to Royal R. Rife came into his life. Dr Arthur I. Kendall, Director of Medical Research at Northwestern University Medical School in Illinois, and Dr Milbank Johnson, a member of the board of directors at Pasadena Hospital in California and an influential power in Los Angeles medical circles.

Dr Kendall had invented a protein culture medium (called "K Medium" after its inventor) which enabled the 'filtrable virus' portions of a bacteria to be isolated and to continue reproducing. This claim directly contradicted the Rockefeller Institute's Dr Thomas Rivers who in 1926 had authoritatively stated that a virus needed a living tissue for reproduction. Rife, Kendall and others were to prove within a year that it was possible to cultivate viruses artificially. Rivers, in his ignorance and obstinacy, was responsible for suppressing one of the greatest advances ever made in medical knowledge.

Kendall arrived in California in mid-November 1931 and Johnson introduced him to Rife. Kendall brought his "K Medium" to Rife and Rife brought his microscope to Kendall.

A typhoid germ was put in the "K Medium", triple-filtered through the finest filter available, and the results examined under Rife's microscope. Tiny, distinct bodies stained in a turquoise-blue light were visible. The virus cultures grew in die "K Medium" and were visible. The viruses could be 'light'-stained and then classified according to their own colours under Rife's unique microscope.

A later report which appeared in the Smithsonian's annual publication gives a hint of the totally original microscopic technology which enabled man to see a deadly virus-size micro-organism in its live state for the first time (the electron microscope of later years kills its specimens):

"Then they were examined under the Rife microscope where the filterable virus form of typhoid bacillus, emitting a blue spectrum colour, caused the plane of polarization to be deviated 4.8 degrees plus. When the opposite angle of refraction was obtained by means of adjusting the polarizing prisms to minus 4.8 degrees and the cultures of viruses were illuminated by the monochromatic beams coordinated with the chemical con­stituents of the typhoid bacillus, small, oval, actively motile, bright turquoise-blue bodies were observed at 5,000X magnification, in high contrast to the colorless and motionless debris of the medium. These tests were repeated 18 times to verify the results."

Following the success, Dr Milbank Johnson quickly arranged a dinner in honour of the two men in order that the discovery could be announced and discussed. More man 30 of the most prominent medical doctors, pathologists, and bacteriologists in Los Angeles attended this historic event on November 20,1931. Among those in attendance were Dr Alvin G. Foord, who 20 years later would indicate he knew little about Rife's discoveries, and Dr George Dock who would serve on the University of Southern California's Special Research Committee overseeing the clinical work until he, too, would 'go over' to the opposition.

On November 22, 1931, the Los Angeles Times reported this important medical gathering and its scientific significance:

"Scientific discoveries of the greatest magnitude, including a discussion of the world's most powerful microscope recently perfected after 14 years' effort by Dr Royal R. Rife of San Diego, were described Friday evening to members of the medical pro­fession, bacteriologists and pathologists at a dinner given by Dr Milbank Johnson in honour of Dr Rife and Dr A. I. Kendall.

"Before the gathering of distinguished men, Dr Kendall told of his researches in cultivating the typhoid bacillus on his new "K Medium". The typhoid bacillus is nonfilterable and is large enough to be seen easily with microscopes in general use. Through the use of "Medium K", Dr Kendall said, the organism is so altered that it cannot be seen with ordinary microscopes and it becomes small enough to be ultra-microscopic or filter­able. It then can be changed back to the microscopic or non-filterable form.

"Through the use of Dr Rife's powerful microscope, said to have a visual power of magnification to 17,000 times, com­pared with 2,000 times of which the ordinary microscope is capable, Dr Kendall said he could see the typhoid bacilli in the filterable or formerly invisible stage. It is probably the first time the minute filterable (virus) organisms ever have been seen.

"The strongest microscope now in use can magnify between 2,000 and 2,500 times. Dr Rife, by an ingenious arrangement of lenses applying an entirely new optical principle and by introducing double quartz prisms and powerful illuminating lights, has devised a microscope with a lowest magnification of 5,000 times and a maximum working magnification of 17,000 times.

"The new microscope, scientists predict, also will prove a development of the first magnitude. Frankly dubious about the perfection of a microscope which appears to transcend the lim­its set by optic science, Dr Johnson's guests expressed them­selves as delighted with the visual demonstration and heartily accorded both Dr Rife and Dr Kendall a foremost place in the world's rank of scientists."

Five days later, the Los Angeles Times published a photo of Rife and Kendall with the microscope. It was the first time a picture of the super microscope had appeared in public. The headline read, "The World's Most Powerful Microscope".

Meanwhile, Rife and Kendall had prepared an article for the December 1931 issue of California and Western Medicine. "Observations on Bacillus Typhosus in its Filtrable State" described what Rife and Kendall had done and seen. The journal was the official publication of the state medical associations of California, Nevada and Utah.

The prestigious Science magazine then carried an article which alerted the scientific community of the entire nation. The December 11, 1931 Science News supplement included a section titled, "Filtrable Bodies Seen With The Rife Microscope". The article described Kendall's filtrable medium culture, the turquoise-blue bodies which were the filtered form of the typhoid bacillus, and Rife's microscope. It included the following description:

"The light used with Dr Rife's microscope is polarized, that is, it is passing through crystals that stop all rays except those vibrating in one particular plane. By means of a double reflecting prism built into the instrument, it is possible to turn this plane of vibration in any desired direction, controlling the illumination of the minute objects in the field very exactly."

On December 27, 1931, the Los Angeles Times reported that Rife had demonstrated the microscope at a meeting of 250 scientists. The article explained:

"This is a new kind of magnifier, and the laws governing microscopes may not apply to it... Or Rife has developed an instrument that may revolutionize laboratory methods and enable bacteriologists like Or Kendall, to identify the germs that produce about 50 diseases whose causes are unknown..."

Soon Kendall was invited to speak before the Association of American Physicians. The presentation occurred May 3 and 4, 1932 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. And there Dr Thomas Rivers and Hans Zinsser stopped the scientific process. Their opposition meant that the development of Rife's discoveries would be slowed. Professional microbiologists would be cautious in even conceding the possibility that Rife and Kendall might have broken new ground. The depression was at its worst. The Rockefeller Institute was not only a source of funding but powerful in the corridors of professional recognition. A great crime resulted because of the uninformed, cruel and unscientific actions of Rivers and Zinsser.

The momentum was slowed at the moment when Rife's discoveries could have 'broken out' and triggered a chain reaction of research, clinical treatment and the beginnings of an entirely new health system. By the end of 1932, Rife could destroy the typhus bacteria, the polio virus, the herpes virus, the cancer virus and other viruses in a culture and in experimental animals. Human treatment was only a step away.

The opposition of Rivers and Zinsser in 1932 had a devastating impact on the history of 20th century medicine. (Zinsser's Bacteriology, in an updated version, is still a standard textbook.) Unfortunately, there were few esteemed bacteriologists who were not frightened or awed by Rivers.

But there were two exceptions to this generally unheroic crowd. Christopher Bird's article, "What Has Become Of The Rife Microscope?", which appeared in the March 1976 New Age Journal, reports:

"In the midst of the venom and acerbity the only colleague to come to Kendall's aid was the grand old man of bacteriology, and first teacher of the subject in the United States, Dr William H. 'Popsy' Welch, who evidently looked upon Kendall's work with some regard."

Welch was the foremost pathologist in America at one time. The medical library at Johns Hopkins University is named after him. He rose and said, "Kendall's observation marks a distinct advance in medicine." It did little good. By then Rivers and Zinsser were the powers in the field.

Kendall's other supporter was Dr Edward C. Rosenow of the Mayo Clinic's Division of Experimental Bacteriology. (The Mayo Clinic was then and is today one of the outstanding research and treatment clinics in the world. The Washington Post of January 6, 1987 wrote, "To many in the medical community, the Mayo Clinic is 'the standard' against which other medical centres are judged.") On July 5-7,1932, just two months after Kendall's public humilia­tion, the Mayo Clinic's Rosenow met with Kendall and Rife at Kendall's Laboratory at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago.

"The oval, motile, turquoise-blue virus were demonstrated and shown unmistakably," Rosenow declared in the "Proceedings of the Staff Meetings of the Mayo Clinic, July 13,1932, Rochester, Minnesota". The virus for herpes was also seen. On August 26,1932, Science magazine published Rosenow's report, "Observations with the Rife Microscope of Filter Passing Forms of Micro-organisms".

In the article, Rosenow stated:

"There can be no question of the filterable turquoise-blue bodies described by Kendall. They are not visible by the ordinary methods of illumination and 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"

Three days after departing from Rife in Chicago, Rosenow wrote to Rife from the Mayo Clinic:

"After seeing what your wonderful microscope will do, and after pondering over the significance of what you revealed with its use during those three strenuous and memorable days spent in Dr Kendall's laboratory, I hope you will take the necessary time to describe how you obtain what physicists consider the impossible.... As I visualise the matter, your ingenious method of illumination with the intense monochromatic beam of light is of even greater importance than the enormously high magnification..."

Rosenow was right. The unique 'colour frequency' staining method was the great breakthrough. Years later, after the arrival of television, an associate of the then deceased Rife would explain, "The viruses were stained with the frequency of light just like colours are tuned in on television sets." It was the best non­technical description ever conceived.