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January 19, 1987

Dr. Harriet Zuckerman
Department of Sociology
Columbia University

New York, New York 10027

Dear Dr. Zuckerman:

I enjoyed reading the commentary "Post mature scientific discovery?"

you recently published with Joshua Lederberg. One aspect of your work
puzzled me. I would have expected some discussion of the 1937 article
"Attempts to Reveal Sex in Bacteria" by Sherman and Winge. These

authors clearly were trying to do the Lederberg experiment approximately

20 years before it succeeded. The methodology and concepts they empolyed
were closely allied to those that later proved successful. The Sherman and
Winge work, if it had been successful, might have been judged “premature."
It failed primarily, because of a poor choice of bacterial strains and
genetic markers - something that very well might have happened to Lederberg
and Tatum many years later.

Joshua Lederberg, in the commentary immediately preceeding your joint
publication, acknowledges the Sherman’ and Winge paper and this made me
even more curious regarding its ommission from your discussion. Did you
consider it irrelevant or am I somehow missing the point of your article?
Some of my comments also apply regarding the 1942 paper of Gowen and
Lincoln but this latter paper is much more a contemporary of the
Lederberg and Tatum work and therefore bears less on the question of pre
or post maturity. The Sherman and Winge 1937 paper was reporting on
experiments done in 1927 and earlier. I enclose a copy of it. It is
interesting for other reasons as well. I have always enjoyed the unusual
style in which it is written. I hope these comments are of some interest

to you.
Sincerely,
Howard I. Adler
Biology Division
HIA:djm

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