Memo from To:
JOSHUA LEDERBERG

Dr B S Blumberg

AUG 11 1971 )

172)
re~- Australia antigen. (24

I hope oversimplification isn't betrayal.

Lots of questions keep crowding my thoughts on
this-- surely yours, a £fortiori,

How certain is it that the! segregating! antigen
is infectious? Obviously, it would be rather sus-
picious to see a recessive antigen} but is it ex-
cluded that you have just this (like some Lewis-
like phenomenon), and a fortuitous cross-reaction
with (ferhaps even tolerance to) a khepatis virus?

Do you have any views on the origin of the
“class"~stratification of HAA, e.g., among paid
donors? (Cf. my speculative extrapolation of your
anthropological-genetic picture to the U.S. situa-
tion.)

Anyhow, all this is put down in a spirit of
unmitégated admiration; which flattery, I hope,
will not deter you from correcting any errors of
fact that may be contaminating my own thinking
about these problems.

&incerely,

i ,

PROFESSOR JOSHUA LEDERBERG
Department of Genetics
School of Medicine

Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305