UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA 4

The College

 

ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY
38th St. and Woodland Ave.
February 25, 1952

Dre Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
College of Agriculture
University of Wisconsin
Madison 6, Wisconsin

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

I wish to thank you for your letter of February 2Z2ist, and I am very much
pleased that you have consented to prepare a brief chapter on the genetics of
bacteria as evidence for the existence of "sex". Of course, you are quite
welcome to invite anyone you wish as co-author or coeauthorse

In regard to format, etc., 1 have no instructions as yet. In my last letter
to Dr. Meyerhoff I asked if they had any suggestions or instructions to guide us
in the preparations of chapters, but I have not had a reply.- Possibly we may not
receive any such guidance until after the meeting of the Publications Committee
on March 2lst. In my letter to Dr. Meyerhoff I stated that I considered adequate
illustrations essential to the proper preparation of this kind of material.

As long as we are embarked on the preparation of a Volume on "Sex in Micro-
organisms", I believe that we should present as well rounded a picture on the
subject as possible. I shall ask you, therefore, if you think we should have a
chapter on the cytological (chromosomal) evidence in bacteria such as that pre-e
sented by Robinow, Bisset and Delamater. I find that some bacteriologists are
unwilling to accept this cytological evidence, while others appear to welcome
it as an important contribution. Will you let me have your advice on this matter.
Drs. Hutchinson and Stempen will present their evidence for cell fusion among
bacteria as they did for the Symposiun.

With very best wishes, I am

Most sincerely yours,
D. He Wenrich

DHW: se