Achievements of Virus Research

The aim of this paper is a brief survey of the achievements in virology as published mainly in the course of 20th century and therafter until recent time. The author believes that in its beginning the virus research has developed in the framework of microbiology and related biological disciplines such as parasitology, pathology, cytology etc. Virologists have payed attention to many biological disciplenes not only for above mentioned reason, but also because they infect not only mammals, but also lower vertebrates including reptiles and/or many avian species as well as plants. To asses the origin of viruses may not be a simple task, it has been anticipated that they had probably sequestrated from cellular structures and then underwent their evolution.