The "Viroid" Theory in Relation to Plasmagenes, Viruses, Cancer and Plastids

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Abstract
It is suggested that ultra-microscopic organisms, here termed viroids, are universally distributed in the cytoplasm of all larger organisms, where they act as essential symbionts. The origin of these viroids is traced back to Archeozoic times, when, it is thought, the viroids may have existed as free-living precellular organisms, which later invaded the cells of higher organisms and ultimately became extinct so free-living forms. Viroids are distinguished from plasmagenes in so far as the latter are not transmissible from one type of organism to another. Viruses are regarded as viroids which have suffered mutation to a pathogenic condition. Cancer, it is suggested, may be induced by viruses (neo-viruses) formed by the in situ mutation of the viroids of the affected organism, in contrast to the normal type of virus (paleo-virus) whose origin by mutation presumably occurred in the distant past and has since spread by transmission from one organism to another.