August 15, 1974

Dr. Robert Merton

Center for Advanced Study in the
Behavioral Sciences

202 Junipero Boulevard

Stanford, California 94305

Dear Bob,

It turns out that the reference I gave you No.99 does not
include what I thought it did: namely the remarks about significance
of attaching binomindlnames in incouraging reporting of research on

correspondence that will take me some time to dig out or perhaps I

will not be able to. In any case, this is something that we could enlarge
upon as a chapter in our book since we have a legitimate handle to it

on account of the role that the natural history of Salmonella played in
forethinking about recombination.

Looking for that material brought to mind two other Situations where
that issue also arose, although again I cannot easily document it as fully
as I would like. One of them is represented by my correspondence with
Waldo Cohn and at some point perhaps only in conversation I do not remember,
I did bring up the point that it would be difficult to persuade my
colleagues to use a one-letter notation when several years work would thus
be trunkated into a very brief code. Perhaps some of that is in my
correspondence with Crick which is hinted at in the material I am sending
you.

I had some rather similar thoughts in mind, but again may not have
recorded them in connection with the notation for organic molecular
structures that is reflected in the second group of enclosed correspondence,
However, this time the suggestion was rejected by the JACS and I suppose
with some justice and I did not think it worthwhile to pursue the matter
any further. I really have not been one to want to push nomenclature although
as you know have not been reticent to suggest it. There is, of course,
another side to this story, namely that efficient codes do not always
lend themselves to easy memonics but I am sure you will agree that this
is not the whole story, If I pick up anything more on this question, I will
send it on to New York,

Sincerely yours,
Joshua Lederberg

Professor of Genetics
JL/rr