AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIET

HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLED

THE LIBRARY-105 SOUTH FIFTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19106. Phone (Z/5) I-
                                     4:---e MArkct 70706
Edward C. Carter, II Librarian

July 8, 1981

Dr. Joshua Lederberg, President

The Rockefeller University
New York, NY 10021

Dear Josh:

        Whit Bell referred to me your request for some information about the
      1946 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium, and shortly after I returned to Stony
     Brook I received also your letter of inquiry about the same matter.  I fear
      there is very little information to impart to you.  I have rechecked the
     Demerec Papers, and there is no correspondence whatsoever that would throw
     light on how Demerec arranged the program or whose assistance he had. Vernon
    Bryson and Albert Kelner were on the staff then and possibly hc asked them for advice
      He also may have consulted Max DelbrUck, who had started the phage course the
      preceding, summer.  Perhaps Luria, who had helped Demerec with advice regarding
(3  publication of papers on bacterial mutation?  Perhaps Rollln Hotchkiss?
I

   It is quite certain, from my own recollection as well as the attached program
of participants in the 1946 Symposium, that Avery was present.  The McCarty,
Taylor, and Avery paper received a very excited reception and caused much dis-
cussion, as you may remember.  I cannot find my copy, if preserved, of the
actual 1946 program.  I probably threw it away-- a great mistake, since the
Symposium volumes do not reproduce the actual program with the dates of presentation,
in proper order, of all papers.  Your paper was, I think, presented in the
second group, probably on the second day of the symposium, or maybe the third.
Would that have been on July 7 or 81
the `ymposium volume,         I enclose a Xerox copy of the Fore&@@ to
           with attention called to some relevant statements/; and also a
copy of the first page of the listed participants, where Avery's name is listed.
I remember his attendance so well,  inasmuch as It was the first time I had
ever seen him, or you, in person.  I also enclose a reprint of an article of my
own (1974) taking Gunther Stent to task because he included Avery as an example of
l'prematurityl' in scientific discovery.  I have since then discussed the issue
with him, and now believe the difference of opinion is mainly semantic, or one of
emphasis.  He would rate every discovery that Is not immediately acclaimed as
"premature,@ whereas I think that, especially In cases of a revolutionary idea,
It takes some time to substantiate a new concept and:produce overwhelming evidence
of its correctness.  I still think the Avery, McLeod, and McCarty paper of 1944
received widespread attention from genetfcists and started a great debate over
the respective merits of DNA and protein as the genetic material.

With best regardsd