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VICTOR J. FREEMAN, M.D.

PRACTICE LIMITED TO

    
  

  
 

AUG 2 1982

CONSULTATION PSYCHIATRY xt
Ky, e
SE OF THE PRES
SPECIALIZING IN: THES DRESS:
INDUSTRY P.O. BOX 639
MARRIAGE MILLBRAE, CA 94030
FAMILY 26 Ju 1 y , 1 988 PHONE: (415) 692-3168

Joshua Lederberg, President
The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Your letter with enclosures has finally arrived! I am sorry
you had so much difficulty locating me. I too regret not
meeting when we both resided so close to each other.

After 38 years, my recall is not so spontaneous. Add to
that the fuzziness that accompanies one soon to be eligible
to join the septigenarian club and you can appreciate that I
will need a litle time to come up with the definitive
version of what happened back then.

I can say without hesitation that no preconceived theory was
involved. The initial discovery that combining avirulent
Strains of C. diphtheriae with bacteriophage resulted in the
production of virulent mutations, definitely was an act of
serendipity on my part. The theory which Neal ascribes to
me concerning release of toxin by phage lysis was an unlike-
ly hypothesis, as I indicated in my initial paper in 1951.

At the moment, I can’t recall if Barksdale questioned me
about the initial step leading to the discovery of the
phenomenon. I certainly don’t remember employing phage to
enhance toxin diffusion.

I assume you are aware that my reason for using phages in
the first place was to simulate a phage typing scheme for
Strains of C. diphtheriae according to the Salmonella
typing model. As soon as we started testing the avirulent
Strains, it was obvious that something was amiss. That
something quickly put a hold on what was supposed to be my
principal research work, as you can well imagine.

In spite of definite discouragement from my advisors in the
Department of Microbiology, who understandably suspected
contamination, I decided to switch tracks and proceed ful]
blast in the direction of determining the relationship of
the phage to the toxin mutation.

Incidentally, Neal was only partially correct when he indi-
cated that I didn’t want to pursue "the possibilities of a
phage-host relationship further." I was interested, but was
convinced that I would have to go into graduate training in
biochemistry, which I wasn’t prepared to do at that time.

I will dig Into my old files to see if I kept any of my
original notes. I fear they were discarded after I got so
embroiled in the field of psychiatry Cwhich is a story unto
itself!>. But if I should come across anything pertinent to
the history you are looking for, and/or recall more detail,
I will let you know.

I want to thank you for your interest in my role in discov-
ecing lysogenic conversion in C. diphtheriae.

Very truly yours,

Victor J. Freeman, M.D.

  

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