January 2, 1969
Dear Wendell:
Thank you for sending me a copy of your paper on Fess.  I find nothing to which I would take vigorous exception, and it has been my experience that everyone has a slightly different slant on the events of the period involved.  I might comment on your reference on page 10 to my joining the Rockefeller Naval Medical Research Unit and the implication that this resulted in a change in my interests. Actually, this changed my activity very little, since Rivers insisted that I should continue to work with Fess; and except for a few occasions when I had qualms about not being more directly related to the war effort, I was happy to do so. Some reports were filed during this period that must have puzzled any members of the Navy staff at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery that happened to read them.
Although they are rarely referred to, there were some additional publications emanating from this work after the 1944 paper. The earlier findings naturally stimulated attempts to purify DNase, and once we had a reasonably decent preparation in hand we applied it to the study of transforming DNA. You will see in the enclosed paper reporting some of this work that, while we were perhaps still cautious, we came down a little harder on the skeptics in the discussion.
Roy Avery's address is Hoods Hill Road, Nashville, Tennessee. I don't have a zip code number, but since he has lived there a few decades, there should be no problem with mail delivery.
With best regards,
Sincerely yours,
Maclyn McCarty, M.D.