abe

Hartmann Stkhelin June 6th, 1956
Sandoz &.G.

Basel

Switzerland

Prof. Joshua Lederberg
Dept. of Genetics
University of Wisconsin
Madison 6, Wisconsin

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Thank you very much for your letter of May 24th in which
you mention my papers on anthrax gymnoplasts. I have never
used de Fonbrune's oil chamber nor have I tried your version
of this method. I guess that your technique is well suitable
for genetic, fusion and other studies with gymnoplasts. How-
ever, for osmotic studies where it is necessary to change
the environment of the cells several times within a short
period and where it is desirable to observe a fairly large
number of cells under identical conditions, I would assume
that the "channel method" which I used is preferable. It has
to be mentioned, though, that my method works only with cells
which have a certain tendency to stick to glass surfaces.

As to the possibility that gymnoplasts can develop again
into typical bacilli, I have not performed any special expe-
riments to solve this question, but from all I have seen
I would conclude that they are not able to do so. For the
investigation of this vroblem, your oil chamber technique
should prove excellent.

Unfortunately, I have not been able at all to continue
the studies with that particular anthrax strain, since I
left Basel immediately after finishing the second paper and
worked for one and a half year at Harvard Medical School with
Dr. E. Suter on tubercle bacilli. At the moment, I am en-
gaged in tissue culture work and doubt very much that I will
be able to return to the gymnoplasts in the near future,

With many thanks again for your interest and your
suggestions I am

yours sincerely

W Lladsb

P.S. I should like to mention that I am not responsible for
the misleading word "transformation" in the title of
the first paper.

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