9th March, 1955
Dear Dr. Commoner,
As you will see from the enclosed, I have now taken photographs of dry B8 and written a short note on the result.  I am afraid this may seem rather hasty, but the advantage of sending something to Nature immediately is that it would appear immediately following the Rich, Dunitz, and Newmark note, of which I am sending you a copy.  I shall, of course wait for your comments before actually sending it to Nature, but I have warned the Editor that it is on the way.  If you would care to add a bit more information about B8 and its relationship to polymerised X, and make the thing a joint publication, I should be very glad if you would send me what you would like to add, and either make or leave me to make the appropriate modifications in what I have written.
I have not yet got prints of my photographs, but the results will look something like this
[DIAGRAM]
I have just received from Takahashi a sample of protein X. It is apparently unpolymerised, so I shall put it at pH 5 and see what I can get from it.  I am anxious to know how much of the difference between Rich's results and mine is due to method and how much to the material.
Reading your papers and Takahashi's, there seems to be one point of difference between B8 and polymerised X on which you make no comment.  You state that B3 polymerises irreversibly to B8, whereas Takahashi states that the polymerisation of X at pH 5 is reversed to pH 7.
I should be most grateful if you would let me have your comments on (and possible additions to) my note as quickly as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Rosalind Franklin