January 8, 1955

Mr, Patrick i, Malin, Exeo. Dir.,
American Civil Liberties Union
170 Fifth Avenue

New York 10, N.Y.

Dear Mr, ilalin:

in the lignt of the mignifieen$ work that tne ACLU is doing, over all,
in the field of civil liberties, my present remarks ure doubtless picayune.
You may nevertheless wish them made, as Ido, for accuracy of record.

My excuptton is baxen Lo your remark at page 39 of the 34th annual
report, which I have just received, that "repktable American biologists
indicate that éne evidence of the research laboratory demands further
consideration of the Lysenko theory." I do not know how this remark
can, in fact, be justigied.

It is true that the press has repeatedly distorted statements given
by geneticists at scientific meetings; indeed it is hardly possible to
give a paper on genetic research that has any bearing on genetic stability
or variation without attracting the attention of reportera who look for
political significance in it. I understand Lysenko's theorles, from his
own publications, to mean a repudiation of the role of the chromosomes
as significant factors in heredity, and I do not know of any experimental
work to offer any support for such a doctrine.

It is likely that your impressions on this subject have come from such
news articles as appeared, fa example, in the New York Times of June 10,
1954, concerning experiments on drug resistance in bacteria, a field which
is of particular interest to me. But as you can readily verify by consul-
ting Dr. Eagle, the remarks falsely attributed to him constitute a gross
distortion. Too many newspapers have found this apnroach the most sensa-
tional aspect of resent genetic resoarch; it is unfortunate that so reputable
a paper as the Times should be so reckless, and in turn, perhaps have
misled persons likes yourself. It is easy to see how error can be propagated.

I was pleased to note your remark on the turnabout in Russian "official
genetics". While most of my colleagues have been most acutely concerned
about Lysenkism as meaning the official decision of scientific "truth",
you may be interested to know that the Genetics Society of Amarica at one
time considered establishing a committee to correct public misunderstanding
of the scientific issues of "Lysenkism", In distinction to the pravate
opinion represented by this letter, this move was strongly opposed by many
members (including myself) who felt this would be in fact a step towards
officilalizing genetic doctrine. A committee was set up, but its instructions