April 16, 1958
Dear Dr. Juhasz:
I am pleased to learn that you are comfortably settled now after your harrowing experiences.
Please do not think for a moment that I have anything but the highest regard and sympathy for your work. I have been extremely busy this past year with the organization of a new department of medical genetics; also I was away in Australia for several months on a Fulbright visit.
There is not much more that we can report no on L forms. Our attempts to use them for genetic transduction have been unsuccessful, and with this my main interest in them.
You have probably seen McQuillen's recent note in Nature. As a semantic contribution it is futile but his point is well taken - restated, that the cell wall of gram-positive bacteria is simpler than in gram-negative. Your photographs are quite elegant, but if there is a residual wall it might be masked by the failure of the protoplast to retract from it. Their sections would be a useful approach. Still I hope you publish them.
If there is no chance of meeting you sooner, I hope we will have an opportunity during the International Genetics Congress in August. If I can get back from the Microbiology Congress and other business in Stockholm in time, my wife and I will be there.
Yours sincerely,
Joshua Lederberg
P.S. Reprints will be sent you when they arrive.