The assertion that the classical model-virusses, allegedly closing the gap between 20 and 200 millimu, that is, between the molecules of the chemist and the organisms of the biologist, as smallest indivisible units of life reduced to their genetic apparatus, possess all essential characteristics of living beings, and at the same time behave "merely" as pure-substances [in the chemical sense], is, of course, false. The fact, however, that they encourage the attempt to connect, in order to eliminate conceptual discontinuity, the "molecule" [i.e. the virus] with the "living cell" is remarkable, but this should not be the only reason to do so. On the other hand one seems to be decided upon -- precisely as in the transition from gene (of about TMV[irus] size) to chromosome -- not to classify such virusses as molecular anymore but as cytoid [cellular], - virusses that is, that morphologically transcend the TMV-type ( RNA-nucleus and protein shell) such as for instance cow-pox virus and other bacterial virus-forms with versatile form (for example, head and tail, like in spermatozoans of higher organisms). An increasing cytoid complexification in ascending [viral] forms indeed should not be overlooked. Because the mechanism of infection generally is already complex ( in the case of bacteriophagues, for instance, " only the DNA from the inside of the phague penetrates into the [bacterial] cell and accomplishes the intracellular reproduction, while the protein shell remains outside the cell" ) we may legitimately assume that also the accompanying chemically physiological events are the result of a corresponding developmental history, and that it is here about a developmentally regressive reduction to the most necessary only (Compare the example of many metazoic [multi-celled] parasites, being degenerated almost entirely to producers of germ material.).
The Unimol view renders these states of affairs always "fraction-free" and connection-favorable. Moreover, also the cytoid habitus is not an exclusively (phylo)genetic feature, but a general feature, perhaps also a convergent feature [i.e. a feature having originated independently in several unrelated organisms].