October 31, 1952

Dr. Edgar Altenburg
Departnent of Biology
Rice Institute
Houston, Temas

Dear Dr. Altenburg:

Thank you for your letter and the enclosed reprints. Actually, I
did not have enough space in the chapter in Bacterial Physiology to
cevelop ths subject fully, and this is the only reason that no reference
was made to your work. Similar speculations have been made for a great
many years-- 3.g. by Burnet in 1929 and 1936 and by Wollman in 1925-~
but various interpretations have been put on them.

You must not think that I have overlooked your writings. Some years
ago I asked for reprints, which were not then fully available. You will
find references to than in the following:

Ann. Rev. Microbiology 1949 3:1~-22
Cold Spring Harbor Symposium 1951 16:413-443
Genetics in the 20th Century 1951 Chapter 13

As it happens, I have a review "Cell genetics and hereditary symbiosis"
in press in Physiological Reviews: it should be in priat momentarily. I hope
I will be understood and believed when I describe this as an eclectic con-
struction; the main point was to push this notion as farcas it goes. The
logical conclusion, as it has seemed to me, is that one cannot readily dis-
tinguish the "genes" from other elements that may be of more recently extrin-
sic origin or from systems that have been qualified as non-genic ai catalysts

The classification of these elements ig entirely Webatable—— and this is
perhaps the main point that needs to be brough out.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg