HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRICS

MARY ELLEN AVERY, M.D. The Children’s Hospital

Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor of Pediatrics 221 Longwood Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Tel.: (617) 735-8330
FAX: (617) 732-4151

October 3, 1994

Qo te Meo,
Dr. Joshua Lederberg AS TPN
University Professor Sta, =|
The Rockefeller University \. 7 /
1230 York Avenue NN /
New York, NY 10021-6399 sea ae

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

IT enjoyed our brief meeting this past Friday at the Lasker celebration.
I took note of your interest in the issues concerning the process of translation
of new science to its incorporation into clinical medicine. John Clements’
observations were made and published in 1957 and were based on basic science that
went back to the days of LaPlace. I know he is currently writing his history,
and it will be an important contribution.

Meanwhile, Dr. Julius Comroe who lured John Clements from Edgewood to the
University of California, San Francisco, did describe the history of
understanding the pulmonary — surfactants in his remarkable book,
Retrospectroscope: Insights into Medical Discovery, which was published initially
by the Von Gehr Press in Menlo Park, California, but is currently available from
the Perinatology Press, PO Box 6827, Ithaca, New York 14851. I have meanwhile
made copies of the relevant chapters and enclose them for your interest.

I hope we have time to discuss some of these fascinating issues in the

future.
Sincerely yours,
iy ANY
/ A wee a Lf b~ I
Mary Ellen Avery, MD
MEA:erc
Enclosures

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