STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 « (415) 321-1200

Sranrorp University ScHOOL OF MEDICINE , S Eppa L
Department of Genetics , 0 CT

Dear Al:

 

 

I am glad to know you are doing a book on lambda.
All we know about K-12 eohistory is in the enclosures.

People have short memories. I would not waste anybody's time or
emotion by taking the initiative in raising historical questions; but
if you are making the definitive historical record, I hope you will

shave the information at least not to embed in concrete some of the
‘retrospective glosses over the early controversies concerning lambda,
F and so forth. I have in mind particularly the critical skepticism
that greeted the first inferences published by Esther and myself
concerning the chromosomal localization of the prophage -- and how
recurrently it was imputed that lambda and F were mixed up with one
another. In our view, the segregation of pro-lambda, linked to Gal,
from heterozygotes, was the decisive verification of the inference
from our first crosses. (We did miss the phenomenon of zygotic induc-
tion, which was not prominent. with our strains under our crossing con-
ditions; but this in fact did not disturb the argument from the crosses. )

I am not suggesting that you take much time or effort to go into
this in your book; but if you do, I hope you will get in the whole at
story, which is a confusing one.

ber yo 794

\

Sincerely,

| Dito ‘ 4

Ene: q"] gle
” Gee weft £44 Le Dey ON Cho

LT. J. P. KENNEDY, JR. LABORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY HEREDITY NEUROBIOLOGY DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE