DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

 

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE . BETHESDA 14, MD.

 

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Area Code 301 Tel: 656-4000

February 24, 1964

Dr. Joshua Lederberg kink 2 1964
Professor of Genetics

Stanford University Medical Center

Palo Alto, California

Dear Dr, Lederberg:

Your letter of February 14 to Dr. Bertie Woolf has been referred to me
and I was interested to hear of your constructive meeting with
Mr. Beresford.

I was also interested to see the notes which you sent to the National
Center for Vital Statistics on demographic studies related to pedi-
atric and genetic problems, I was sorry to hear that they were unable
to furnish the requested tabulations to you. With respect to seasonal
variation of birth, they have a recent observation which may be of
interest to you. One of the hypotheses is that the seasonal variation
might be due to changes in fetal mortality. In general, one would
expect that the sex ratio would decrease with increased fetal mortality,
as you know. They have put together three years of tabulations on
seasonal sex ratio, There appears to be a correlation, all right, but
it is exactly the opposite of the one expected - ae is, a seasonal
@#ex ratio increases as the natality decreases.

I am taking the liberty of sending you a report which I propose to
publish on perinatal mortality in the Indians. Here I have made a
very crude comparison of census variables with perinatal indices. This
might be regarded as a before in a before-and-after comparison of what
yeu might be able to develop with your computer. I am also working on
a second report studying perinatal indices in Orientals. Most of this
data is from California and it shows quite impressive differences.

I would be happy to receive any comments that you might have and any
other information. I hope to be in touch with you after the Council
action on the census material in March.

Very sincerely yours,

Franz Rosa, M.D., Acting Director
Perinatal Biology Program

National Institute of Child Health
and Human Deve lopment

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