Twort and others wanted to use these bacteriolytic agents to cure bacterial diseases in humans and animals. When this proved to be unsuccessful, Twort went back to expanding his original idea that the bacteriolytic agents themselves needed an addition (essential) factor of a more exceptional nature to satisfy their fundamental needs. He searched for a substance that would allow viruses to grow apart from other forms of life (i.e. a host organism) and when this was unsuccessful, he tried to prove that bacteria evolved from viruses. His prime idea was to devise conditions for the cultivation of viruses from abiotic precursors or hypothetical pre-virus forms which might exist in nature. These experiments, while failures, presaged the famous Miller-Urey experiments of the 1950s. Although he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1929, Twort was never again to publish work of any serious import. On 19 November 1931 London University's Senate conferred on him the title of Professor of Bacteriology on the following grounds: 1. His distinguished contributions by research to the advancement of his subject. 2. His powers of exposition. 3. His eminence in his subject.