Question

Assertion: Pasteur coined Contagium Vivum Fluidum.
Reason: Pasteur found that virus-infected plants of tobacco can cause infection in healthy plants.
a. If both assertion and reason are true and the reason is the correct explanation of assertion.
b. If both assertion and reason are true and the reason is not the correct explanation of assertion.
c. If the assertion is true but the reason is false.
d. If both assertion and reason are false.

Answer 1

Contagium Vivum Fluidum means contagious living fluid. It was named so because the virus can slip through the finest of the meshes and filters, thereby having a fluidic property. The virus was found when the scientist was studying the tobacco mosaic virus.

Complete answer:
The original research was conducted on the tobacco mosaic virus but it was confusing why the disease still prevailed even after Chamberland's porcelain filter was used to filter the microbe.
The scientist Martinus W. Beijerinick discovered the Contagium Vivum Fluidum while searching for the tobacco mosaic virus in the porcelain filter and understanding the cause of the disease in the tobacco plant. It was found out that infection was not caused by any microbe but a virus- Contagium Vivum Fluidum.
Another scientist, Mayer found that the disease in tobacco mosaic virus could be transmitted by rubbing the leaf sap of the healthy plants with the infected leaf.
Therefore the assertion and the reason both are wrong.
Option (a) is not correct because Pasteur was not the one to coin the term Contagium Vivum Fluidum and neither did he find the cause of infection in the tobacco plant.
Therefore, option (a) is incorrect.
Neither the assertion is true nor the explanation is true because the names of the scientists are different from what is presented. Therefore, option (b) is also not correct.
Option (c) is also not correct from the above explanation.
The assertion and reason both are false.

Hence, option (d) is correct.

Note:
This virus is a result of the findings of a lot of scientists. The reason why tobacco mosaic virus disease could not be prevented by Chamberland’s porcelain filter led to a number of discoveries. This is why this virus was called fluidic because it could pass through the Chamberland’s porcelain filter undetected. Hence, named Contagium Vivum Fluidum.