UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

 

 

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DEPARTMENT OF REPRODUCTION DAVIS, CALIFORNIA 95616
SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION

February 8, 1980

Philip Levine, M.D., F.R.C.P.
Ortho Research Foundation
Raritan, N.J. 08869

Dear Phil:

Your letter with enclosed reprints and MS (Historical Perspectives...)
Just received and greatly appreciated. The same, of course, applies to
your earlier phone call. And all this after so many years.

The week following your phone call Elvin Kabat was our guest. In the
course of driving him around on the campus we were discussing the good
old days (e.g., 1938-1948) and I just happened to say, "Guess who phoned
me last week?" and he replied, without any hesitation whatsoever, "Phil
Levine". I asked "How the Hell did you Imow that?" He said "That's
easy, Phil's been phoning everyone!"

And then I told Elvin about the time we first met in Madison when you came
back to talk to Irwin's group (Ferguson, Irwin, Black, Cumley, myself and
a few "outsiders") about your ideas on the etiology of HDN. when I heard
your case histories, and you had only a few at that time (1939), I was
convinced that you were on the right track and didn't hesitate to give you
my opinion. That was the kind of assurance you needed and it wasn't long
after that that the data began to appear in the literature.

Reminiscing is an interesting/pass tame, and I am certain the stories get
better and better as the years roll by: But there is one I always like
to tell and it needs no magnification whatsoever. One of my former stu-
dents asked me when discussing the merits of the linkage theory (CDE) and
the theory of multiple alleles (Rh-Hr) if I kmow R.A. Fisher. I said "Yes,
of course, I even danced with him". The story is true and the scene was
at the final banquet during the 9th International Congress of Genetics
held in Bellagio, Italy, August 1953. Fisher (Sir Ronald) and I, who had
been engaged in a discussion with J.B.S. Haldane about chimeric cattle
twins, entered the ballroom late to find that the ladies by then were all
engaged with dancing partners. R.A. looked at me in dismay and said
"Stormont, shall we dance?" I said "Why not?" Of course, we both found
better partners right after that dance and that was the last time I ever
saw Sir Ronald.
Philip Levine
February 8, 1980
page two

Unfortunately, I never did meet Karl Landsteiner but I can always say that
I did know some of his most outstanding coworkers (often referred to as_
"students"), Phil Levine and Al Wiener. You know, Phil, I still have on
display the two books which I refer to as bibles, namely, the 1936 and
1945 editions of Landsteiner's Specificity of Serological Reactions, and
you will see (p.3 of the enclosed reprint on The Early History of Cattle
Blood Groups) that I referred to the bible once again. I highlighted that
reference for your benefit and also one other on the same page. Phil, in
your Historical Perspectives Before 1945 - Updated you wrote, ‘In my 56
years devoted to active research in the laboratory, I invariably discovered
surprisingly 'new' gems in reviewing the literature of the past".

And, Phil, now that the serology of the MNSsUMi* system can all be
explained on the basis of substitutions involving amd sequence of @
amino acids (re your Perspectives), do you still subscribe to the
Fisher-Race-Sanger theory of closely linked genes to explain that
system? You know, people like myself and Al Wiener took an awful
lot of punishment over the years for proposing and adhering to the
theory of multiple alleles to explain such systems. ‘Indeed, I have
never had any problems whatsoever in explaining any of the numerous
complex blood group systems, which I and my students have discovered
in cattle, sheep, horses, etc., on the basis of multiple alleles.

I'm off on Sunday for two weeks In Brazil. Will contact you when I
return in regards to immmizing some horses with antigens of the MNSsU
system. In the meantime, the word is go. So get the antigen preps
ready to mail to me.

Best personal regards.
Sincerely yours ,

it. be
Ode

Clyde Stormont
Professor of Immunogenetics

CS:lce
Enclosures