May 31 ’ 1963

Dr. J. B. S. Haldane

Genetics and Blometry Laboratory
Government of Orissa
Bhybaneswar - 3

Orissa, India

Dear Professor Haldane:

f am sorry about the misprints that plague the computer outputs.
It is a serious problem; not uniquely American. Dr. Garfield
will surely respond directly. If he spent tess time In sales~
manship, there would be no {SI at all: perhaps that would be
preferable by your own reckoning.

Your Invitation to visit Is vary much appreciated, and | will

certainly take advantage of it when I can. §ut | have sharply
cut down on travelling nowadays. You may have been thinking of
€@ DNA conference | was invited to, but won't be able to attend.

Do you think western comunities have been so much less Isolated?
| rather think we grossly underestimate the stratification that
still persists now, and must have been much sharper a generation
ago. | am looking for sone measure of this through analyses of
seasonabilIty of birth -- the detalls of the 10% + annual swing
in the United States look like a distinctive signature of social
group, so there should be something Interesting In birthday
correlations among spouses (perhaps less confoundedly among
slbs-In-law). Finding large files of useful family data is not
easy, but the Census Bureau may eventually come through. The
measures are so weak that very large numbers are needed and |
have to find collections already machinable for conputer handling.

All this started from a relnvestigation of the old storées about
birthmonth vs. genius and mental retardation. | am quite con-
vinced now that the seasonal effects are amply explained as indexes

of family origin; this Is of course hard to prove without extensive
kindred data.

Sinedrely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

any Arye