DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY
HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
25 SHATTUCK STREET

BOSTON 18, MASSACHUSETTS

December 17, 1957

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin

Dear Joshua:

I'm sorry to have hele up so long the manuscript by Boris Rotman that
was submitted to J.Bact from your lab. I have had to spend many hours
with this paper to try to find what was sound and interesting in it,

and to try to find why it was so difficult toe read. I imagine that the
fact that you left for Australia this fall had a good deal to do with the
release of the manuscript in its present, inadequate form.

I was tempted to throw the thing back to the Journal with the recommenda-
tion that they return it to you for general revision. However, it seemed
to me that it might be more helpful to you and Boris if I gave you my
criticims in some detail. Accordingly, I am enclosing a copy. I have not
yet sent this to the J. Bact., but have simply notified Roger Porter, who
is breathing down my neck, that 1've communicated with you directly. I
would appreciate your letting me know whether I should send these comments
officially to the Journal, as I would do if it were a stranger's paper, or
whether I shovld simply notify them that I have recommended modification
and have discussed the matter in detail with you.

With best personal regards,

Sincerely,

[Perce

Bernard D.Davis

P.S. I haven't written Boris Rotman about the paper, of which he sent me

a copy privately, or about his inquiry concerning the possibility of spending

a few months here. I should write him soon. I remember him as a likeable \
person, and I imagine it would be fun to have him around here. However, he , b,
certainly missed the boat on the extraction of, RNA inhibited enzymes, and it

seems to me that he has messed up the present problem in mixing together data

on induced and on non-specific transport systems. I wonder whether he isn't
tending to work on problems that are too complicated for his talents. I'd

appreciate any advice you might give me on what I might expect of a visit from
him.