Preliminary results reported last year on the ion etching of tobacco mosaic virus indicated that the diameter of the virus decreased more rapidly at 10KV than at 5KV, perhaps reaching a constant value before disappearing completely.In order to follow the effects of ion etching on TMV more quantitatively we have designed and built a second apparatus (Fig. 1), which incorporates monitoring devices for measuring ion current and vacuum as well as accelerating voltage. In addition, the beam diameter has been increased to approximately 1 cm., so that ten electron microscope grids can be exposed to the beam simultaneously.
