MAR 11 1965
United States Army
BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES
Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21701

SMUFD- BR-C 9 March 1965

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
School of Medicine
Stanford University

Palo Alto, California

Dear Professor Lederberg:

Thank you for your prompt air mail reply of March 5th with additional
cryptology relating to polyhedra. I cannot imagine a more perfect inspir-
ation than Dr. Polya for polyhedral partitioning analysis, and you can see
from the enclosures that I am exploring a much simpler lower level.

Blair and Henze calculated the alkane (free-tree) isomers with alkyl
(rooted-tree) answers, whereas in 1955 I saw a way of counting them directly--
from "established" partition-counting tables. Unfortunately, I could not
find supporting references--even from The Unpublished Mathematical Tables
Center at University of California--showing that mathematicians has "es-
tablished" these counts for different kinds of partitioning places. No
doubt the situation has improved in the past ten years, as this is really
elementary arithmetic.

When I was almost ready to compose a MS fit for publication, I found
a general solution to Arthur Cayley's problem, wherein the alternatives
are not the binomial Y or X alternatives, but branching points of unlimited
valence. Then I felt that the "more queer" cyclic partitions also should
be put into the full story, so I just never found time to compile this
whole ramified file.

The "43 fundamental types of tricyclic structures" were presented to
the NBS Airlie House Workshop of September 1953 in a 2-page ditto=printed
note. As soon as I find one of my few remaining copies, I will duplicate
it for you. Meanwhile, I hope you will accept the attached sketch of
these 43 forms and other enclosures as a "first round" of exchanges.

Regarding this other enchanting intellectual exercise with ambnoacids,
there may be several reasons why Sorm's single-letter proposals have not
been accepted:

(1) At first glance there seems to be no justification whatever for
assigning the letter-I to anything other than isoleucine.
Professor Joshua Lederberg 9 March 1965

(2) Likewise it seems illogical not to use L for either Leucine
or Lysine, the prime candidates for this letter.

(3) The key choices do not seem statistically justified.

(4) No alternatives are offered for unresolved asparaginoid and
glutaminoid pairs, at least not on the list you gave me.

(5) No provision is evident for a cystine/2 difference from
cysteine.

(6) No provision is evident for the terminal OH- or NH j- groups.
(7) No provision is evident for a general uncertainty.

Half a year has passed since my suggestions of August, 17, 1964 were
given flattering attention in C&EN (without knowing about Sorm's work),
yet your not@of March 5th is the first substantial one that I have re-
ceived on it. Thus general apathy prevails, and I am willing to join
forces with you to fight this deadly disease of indifference.

My attack on this intellectual 20-step puzzle started with the recent
knowledge about the statistical prominence of alanine, glycine, and lysine,
justifying these three key assignments for A, G, and L. Next, my choices
for the asBaragine/aspartic acid and glutamine/glutamic acid unresolved
pairs have some mnemonic excuse--J for the asparaJinic B/D pair and W for
the "double-U" glUtamic N/U pair.

 

Finally, terminal letters are needed for the aQueous OH-end and the
YaZotic or hydraZinoid” NHg-end (Z is pictorially a letter N "on end”).
I would accept Sorm's C for cysteine if K were reserved for the related
"Konnecting" cystine/2, since K is in fact a branqhed symbol. We agree
perfectly on F, H, M, P, S, and V, so I cannot* see why we could not reach
full agreement after some give-and-take in an open forum bout. Thus I
expect that no one would take exception to X for unknowns!

Sincerely,
{Nw 4 Wiamoor~
Encls— ° WILLIAM J. WISWESSER
Structure-counting MS Research Chemist
Partitioned Counts to Co Crops Division

Ring Types: '58 & '63
Amino acid Letters
Empty Column

ik ce: Dr. Harold Batchelor 2
Wm. H. Longenecker
Aaron Addelston