Zoology Department,

pe
4 +9/ ern University of Edinburgh,

(

West Mains Road,
Edinburgh 9. .
28th December 58
Dear Josh,
First of all, very many congratulations. We were all
delighted, Lorna and myself, also all our family. And we dont think
it will be too long before you get another prise, perhaps for something
to do with somatic cells the next time. Marvelous.
Then, I've been looking through the information about
Standford. It all looks just too good to be truee But no less than
you deserve. A nev building by Edward Stone; the best biochemist as a
colleague; other colleagues who are vitally concerned with the same
sotr of things as yourself, especially Kaplan and Goldstein. Of course
what made me most delighted in the whole set-up was your own proposals
for research: obviously there's going to be a lot more coming out
about epinuclear genetics, and that's the main thing now. We spent so
much time at Carradale talking about antibodies that we never properly
got round to the epinuclear future in microorganisms. My own guess
is that this is where the most exciting things are going to emerge in
biology in the immediate future - they'll come sooner than, say, sex
in somatic cells. And it's up to you to find them.
You know how honored IJ felt by your offer to me. And
the terms were magnificent: plenty of research, some teaching, and more
dollars than I can imagine ever being able to spend. But the main thing
was - and I am being perfectly honest - that I would have been working
with someone really exciting whe really wanted done weh t I could hope to
do. What I said in the Summer was the truth. There's nothing I'd rather
do as a scientist. But there's more to life than that.
Next, what fun it will be for us all to meet again next
June at the Ciba meeting in Paris. I see that you've left your title
open. I hope that you'll have something more to say about tolerance.
I'm sending you(by surface mail) a copy of my draft for an earlier
meeting, to be held in March in Liege. You will see that I8ve tried to

give an account of your hypothesis - I hope it meets with satisfaction.

 
Le

Complies = \

wy
TI think i4, shows that the presence of antigen is definitaay required

for the mantainance of tolerance to erythrocytes. fugethearxmxkk It fully
confirms the important paper of Smith and Bridges which came out a few
months ago. You will see that I have speculated about a possible test
of your hypothesis, according to variance in the time-course of the
loss of tolerance. But I dont feel particularly optimistic about this.
Is there any chance of yourself and Esther spending a few days on
the riviera before the meeting, with Cavalli and Donald Michie? Donald
is an old friend of mine, and also of Cavalli. He's going to Italy under
Cavalli's auspices in May, and we thought it would be great fun if we
could all spend a few days on a NWediteranean beach together. He has
asked Cavalli, but has not heard from him yet (at least as far as I
lnow). Would this be the best time for you, or would you prefer after
the Ciba meeting ? Do try to come.

Finally, may I introduce a friend at long range? Dr J.L.Gowans
will be making a journey through the USA next January and February. He
is extremely keen to meet you - indeed you may have heard from him
already. I do not think your time would be wasted if he calls in.

He has just completed a most important experiment on the lymphocyte -
that much misjudged cell. So far from living only a few days, the
lymphocyte appears to live for many weeks, continually recirculating
from the blood to the lymph nodes. This may have implications for
antibody production (though I think Jim has doubts whether the small
lymphocyte at least has anything to do with immunity). He comes from

the Pathology department at Oxford, Florey's lab.

Wenn warty,
Paro