a 1-7 JAN 9 1984

THE MENDEL NEWSLETTER

Archival Resources for the History of Genetics CY Allied Sciences

 

ISSUED BY THE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

No 23 Chef November 1983
THE ALFRED E. MIRSKY PAPERS

AT THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

 

 

 

The papers of Alfred E. Mirsky (1900-74), general physiologist
and biochemist, were presented to the Rockefeller University Archives
in 1974, as a generous gift from his widow, Sonya Wohl Mirsky. The
collection comprises 74 boxes (approximately 37 linear feet), and in-
eludes biographical and personal material, bibliography, professional
correspondence, subject files, administrative papers of The Rocke-
feller Institute and University, manuscripts, scientific reports,
photographic materials, collected ‘reprints, and laboratory samples.
Some highlights# of the collection will be noted below in a brief,
necessarily Limited, biographical sketch.

Alfred &. Mirsky was born on October 17, 1900, in Plushing, New
York. He attended the Ethical Culture School in New York City, and
in 1918 entered Harvard College, where his concentration subject was
chemistry. The transcript of his college record is preserved, as is
an interesting paper written in March 1919 for a freshman English
course: “From a biological standpoint, the mechanistic theory of
life is more acceptable than the vitalistic one.”

Mirsky's graduate training included studies at Columbia Univer-
sity's College of Physicians and Surgeons, the University of Cambridge
(Ph.D. 1926), and Harvard Medical School. At Cambridge Mirsky worked in
the laboratory of Joseph Barcroft, where he began in collaboration with
M. L. Anson (a fellow student) a series of spectroscopic observations
on hemoglobins from different animals. Mirsky and Anson were the first
to demonstrate the reversibility of protein denaturation, reported in
preliminary form in Mirsky's thesis on "The Haemoglobin Molecule."

In 1927 both Mirsky and Anson received appointments at The Rocke-
feller Institute for Medical Research: Mirsky at the laboratories in
ew York City, and Anson at the Institute's Princeton branch. They
were able to continue and extend the studies of protein denaturation,
and between 1928 and 1935 co-authored 29 published papers. From 1935
to 1936 Mirsky was a visiting professor at the California Institute
of Technology where he worked with Linus Pauling on theory of protein
atructureX” Mirsky's early ecientific work is documented primarily
in laboratory notebooks and unpublished scientific reports. There
gre also some valuable autobiographical and historical remarks in

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exchanges with Alfred D. Hershey (1970), Daniel Koshland, Jr. (1971).
and Jeffries Wyman (1972).

The protein denaturation studies led to the fruitful discovery of
new methods for chemically isolating constituents of cell nuclei. How
this discovery came about is related in Mirsky‘'s very interesting
scientific report for 1941-42. Among the contributions of Mirsky and
his collaborator A. W. Pollister (of the Department of Zoology, Colum-
bia University) were (1) a general method for preparing desoxyribose
nucleic acid (DNA), (2) an improved method for isolating egil nuclei,
and (3) the identification of non-histone nuclear protein XY This work
was a bridge to wider appreciation of DNA research: Chargaff has
written that Mirsky and Pollister's studies, with those of Hammersten'‘s,
were of “particular importance in providing the impulse for the iso-
lation of a large number of highly polymerized preparations of deoxy-
pentose nucleic acid." Indeed, some of Mirsky's own preparations
were used by Oswald T. Avery and his associates in their work on
transforming principle of Type III pneumococcus 4

Details of Mirsky's experiments from this period, and references
to the scientific literature, are preserved in laboratory notebooks:
of special interest are the notebooks "Plasmosin" (1941-42), “Chro-
matin" (1942), “Nucleoproteins” (1942-44), “Bacteriology” (1943-44),
and “Chromosome and Gene--References" (ca. 1942). The overlap of
Mirsky's work with that of Avery's laboratory is documented in the
Mirsky scientific reports for 1942-43 and 1943-44, as well as in several
entries in the laboratory notebooks. Also of interest is a 1-1/2 inch
subject file on O. T. Avery, which consists of reprints, articles,
correspondence (1972-74), and photocopies of Avery's scientific reports.

A new physiology laboratory for Mirsky’s research was completed in
1947, and the following year he was appointed a senior Member of The
Rockefeller Institute. With his first Assistant, Hans Ris, Mirsky
worked out methods for studying the chemistry of isolated chromosomes
and nuclei of differant cells. They were among the first to demonstrate
that the quantity of DNA per cell nucleus is a species constant, irre-
spective of the somatic origin (e.g. liver versus blood) of the cells;
sperm cells ware found to have one-half the amount found in somatic
cells” There is a letter in the collection from H. J. Muller to
Mirsky, 11 August 1950, about the “grand discovery” of DNA constancy.

[Im the 1950s the research of the Mirsky laboratory shifted to the
atudy of synthetic functions of the cell nucleus. The laboratory
hosted many visiting investigators, and graduate students aleo joined
the department as the Institute established itself as a graduate uni-
versity in the 19502 and 1960s (the name was officially changed to "The
nockefeller University” in 1965). The correspondence from thie later
period is auch more extensive: a comprehensive list of names is recorded
in the unpublished guide to the collection. Letters relevant to the
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scientific work of the Mirsky laboratory include a letter from Salvador
EZ. Luria to Mirsky, 25 March 1955, expressing "delight" at findings
recently published by Mirsky's associate Vincent G. Allfrey on the role
of DNA in protein synthesis. Also of note is Mirsky's correspondence
with M. H.S.Wilkins, April-December 1955, on X-ray diffraction studies
of chromosomal nucleoproteins. Mirsky supplied Wilkins with biological
material, and several X-ray diffraction photographs sent by Wilkins

are in this file. A very helpful overview of the Mirsky laboratory's
contributions may be found in a biographical memoir of Mirsky by a
former Ph.D. student, Bruce S. McEwen XY

In addition to his research, Mirsky made valuable contributions to
the scholarship of science as editor, critic and historian. He was
Editor of The Journal of General Physiology from 1951 to 1961 and he
also co-edited, with Jean Brachet, the six volumes of The Celi: Bio-
chemistry, Physiology, Morphology (1959-64), published by Academic
Press. The editorial correspondence of the JGP is part of the journal's
archive; there is a small file on the journal in Mirsky’s papers, in-
eluding letters of appreciation on the occasion of his retirement as
Editor. The editing of The Cell is extensively documented: the plan-
ning correspondence between Mirsky and Brachet, ca. 1955-56, is
interesting source material, with outlines for the series and comments
on possible contributors.

Mirsky took an active interest in the heredity/environment discus-
sion and debate, particularly with regard to the biology of human raceme
He published critical book reviews from this perspective of C. D. Darl-
ington's The Facts of Life in 1954,“ and of Sir Julian Huxley's Essays
of a Humanist in 1964NY Unpublished material on the subject of eugenics
may be found in the correspondence; for example, with H. J. Muller (1954),
George Polanyi (1956), and N. P. Dubinin (1972). Mirsky's subject files
on C. D. Darlington, and on Eugenics, contain useful material; the manu-
script file on the Huxley review has letters and correspondence.

In 1968 Mirsky published in Scientific American an historical
article, "The Discovery of DNA," on the work of Friedrich Miescher and
his contemporaries NO Typescripts of the article are preserved with
Mirsky's manuscripts; this file also has photocopies of background
material, and a letter received from the physician of Mirsky's daugh-
ter Mary, dated 11 July 1978. There is additional Mirsky/Miescher
source material in the correspondence files: letters from Karl Miescher,
Friedrich Miescher's nephew, and a useful list of historical references :
compiled frém Dr. Paul GO. P. Ts'o in 1972.

The collection of personal photographs, approximately 2 inches,
includes many informal pictures of Mirsky's laboratory associates.
Several "vintage" photographs are of special historical interest: an
informal portrait of Alfred E. Mirsky in 1922; an informal photo of
Y. Dobzhansky and L. C. Dunn; a portrait of the anatomist R. R.

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Bensley; and, an inscribed portrait from W. J. V. Osterhout to
Mirsky.

The gift of the collection was made without restrictions; however,
access to material of a confidential or sensitive nature may be Limited.
An unpublished guide to the collection (92 pages) is available, com-
piled by Mrs. Gladys Lewis, Archivist.

Carolyn Kopp
University Archivist
The Rockefeller University

la. EB. Mirsky and Linus Pauling, “On the structure of native,
denatured, and coagulated proteins," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sei. 22:439-77
(July 1936). —

2a. EL Mirsky and A. W. Pollister, “Chromosin, a desoxyribose
nucleoprotein complex of the cell nucleus, ° J. Gen. Physiol. 30:117-48
(20 November 1946). See also the citations to this paper in J. N.
Davidson, The Biochemistry of the Nucleic Acids 4th ed. (New York s-
John Wiley and Sons, 1960), pp. 37, 137, 140.

3erwin Chargaff, “Isolation and composition of the deoxypentose
nucleic acids and of the corresponding nucleoproteins,” in: Erwin
Chargaff and J. N. Davidson, eds The Nucleic Acids. Chemistry and
Biology vok. 1 (New York: Academic Press, 1955), pp. 307-71: quoted
on page 312.

4oswald T. Avery. Colin M. MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty. "Studies
on the chemical nature of the substance inducing transformation of |
pneumococcal types. Induction of transformation by a desoxyribonucleic
acid fraction isolated from Pneumococcus Type III, "J. Exp. Med.

79:137-5% (1 February 1944); Mirsky acknowledged pp. 146, 147.

5a. £. Mirsky and Hans Ris, “Variable and constant components
of chromosomes," Nature 163:666-67 (30 April 1949). A more general
discussion, with historical background, is A. E. Mirsky, "The
chemistry of heredity," Scientific American 188:47-57 (February 1953).

 

Spruce S. McEwen, "Alfred E. Mirsky (1900-1974)," American Philo-
sophical Society Yearbook 1976. pp. 100-103. See also Vincent G.

 

‘Allfrey and Alfred E. Mirsky, “How cells make molecules," Scientific

American 205:74-82 (September 1961).

 

Tpaul P. Cranfield, “Alfred £. Mirsky, 1900-1974,* 3. Gens Physiol.
64:131-33 (August 1974).

3a. E. Mirsky, Book review of C. S. Darlington, The Facts of
Life in: Scientific American 190:92-4 (April 1954).
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a, E. Mirsky, "Genetics and human affairs,” book review of

Sir Julian Huxley, Essays of a Humanist in: Scientific American
211:135-38 (October 1964); Letter to the Editors [Reply to Huxley],
Scientific American 212:7-9 (January 1965).

l0aifred E. Mirsky, "The Discovery of DNA," Scientific American
219:78-84, 86, 88 (June 1968).