hvoas

61 Columbia Street
Brookline, Massachusetts
6 March 1975

Professor Joshua Lederberg

Department of Genetics

Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Dr. Lederberg,

I owe you many apologies for getting this paper to you at
such a late date, It seems that medical school refuses to leave
free the large blocks of time that one needs to grapple with
a long paper. But I did manage to get the material into co-
herent form and organize the lengthy bibliography that I promised
Youe

In all honesty, I am not entirely happy with this paper.

I would like to have been able to present you with something
more thoroughly researched and fully explored, but the topic
and a severe shortage of time worked together to prevent that.
This is by no means meant to excuse the work, as it will speak
for itself. I certainly think that some of the ideas I've
touched upon are worthwhile, and your comments will be greatly
appreciated.

The reading that I did at Stanford during January has proved
to be useful in many unexpected ways since I returned to Boston,
In particular, I am using some of the material on early geneticists
for a history of medicine course in which I serve as a teaching
fellow for Barbara Rosenkrantz. I hope to present a section of
the course on the eugenics movement and the notion of insanity
and “feeble-mindedness" as inheritable according to simple Men-
delian principles,

Your comments on Larry Miller's letter in The Lancet on the
XYY controversy were most interesting, as Miller is a classmate
of mine. I agree that the imperative is decidedly social in
nature--it must be, as it would be difficult to formulate a
scientific imperative for discontinuing this research. Miller
is merely mouthing the ideas of a group of liberals at the Medical
School (headed by Jon Beckwith and several other bacterial genet-
icists) who meet regularly to discuss this and related issues,
As I have seen few compelling scientific reasons for continuing
the XYY study, my own view is that this "social imperative" ought
to win out for the time being. But Beckwith was extremely rash

in his attacks, and he seems to have alienated more people than
he has convinced,

Your remarks about a possible analogy between American
reactions to Nazi racism and reactions to the persecution of
Soviet Jewry have set me to thinking. I know little about the
page 2

history of American protest against Soviet repression of Jews,
but I hope to find time to do some reading very soon.

Again, my apologies for taking so long to finish this work.
I look forward to your comments on the paper when you have time,
Over the past two months, your ideas and suggestions have sparked
my interest in several new subjects and forced me to think about
problems in new ways. For that, and for all of your help,
I am genuinely grateful.

With best regards,

< fob

Bob Waldinger