ISTITUTO DI ZOOLOGIA
E ANATOMIA COMPARATA

 

UNIVERSITA DI PARMA

LABORATORIO Di GENETICA Milan, Nov.19,1956

My dear Joshua,It has been my turn now to answer you,and I have not been
better than you as a correspondent.I do not think I have even written you
how much I enjoyed your latest discovery (is it ill] the latest? I rééer

to the penicillin balloons).We repeated thegMhere,of course,and liked them
very much. From my side I havenothing new to report .I have had,and still ha
a great deal of routine to cope with,and the amount of my werk researwh is
gradually declining while that of commitments increases.I shall need a break
from all this soon,and starting in a new at os here would help considerably;
the address of the heading might be a solutionkbut the Sslowm pace af which
everything proceeds in Europe will certainly demand a longax time before I
can obtain the independence necessary for work,in Parma or elsewhere.
Fortunately,I shall have some time for writing,and misaxkhe I have rebuilt
the enthousiasm necessary for it.I would strongly recommend that we go on
with the book. As your letter mentioned,I must give tee signs of it,and I
would have liked to wait until I could send you somexhingxuore substantial
proof, I am just out of the last commitments,various duties in teaching
statistics that I could not avoid.My only immediate commitment is the paper
on Bacterial Genetics for Ann.Rev.Micr.,which is not/enedmpatibdle, but rather
synercistic with the book.In fact,what stopped me most sofar was the fact
that the chapter to be wrfitten next was chapter Il,which demanded a goad
knowledge of a literature which I follwed car@elessly in the last yearsganad
For both chapter II and VI,I felt that a radical reexamination of the lite-
rature was necessary and this idea almost overwhelmed me. The ARN conmitment
will now force me to the task,and I hope to be able to produce chapters
2,5,6 in a reasonable time ;let us say, a chppter a month?

Eo was rather showked when I read again my outline for chapeer II.It is a ver
poor thing. JUnthe contrar Jd am fairly pleased on rereading what is ready of
chppter V, essentially a kusy° of »ropulation kinetics. The scheme is quite
similar to that laid down in the chapter outline,but quite different,and it
seers to me,better than our joint Rome paper.

If therefore,you think you need axgumixauckingxef chapter II in full before
you can go on with III and IV,you should wait a little longer.Otherwise you
can start on the last two,and I will not let you down. Perhaps the nublisher
who are always used to long wait®! will be content to know that we shall be
able to deliver them a completed manuscript after your planned visit here ih
September which would certainly help to put a number of things straighthor
would Theyinsist fom having it before that date? .

I do not think I have yet reacted to your provnosal to vay a visit to us in
September. It is a splendid idea and it has -reatly pleased the both of us,
even if my logg silence after our letter may have seemed to point out just
to the contrary. September is,a favorable time (Krushchov permitting );the
children will be on the seaside,so that we can easily accommodate you at
home.The weather should be satisfactory. You mifht probably like: tom cive a
lecture in WMilan and one in Rome; we were arrangingthem when we thought you

might come in March,and they are easily postnoned. The main advantage of the
Spam fee fourig Ty re ¢ AUN us 1 purrebly tw f (bean cron fi:
of lecturing in Rome is that ih additioh to itsxinterestxfar beingmore
pleasant! it should be more, repunerative.Money is made in Kilan and spent
in Rome. However,we have/been unable to have a precise answer;Rome being
further South than Milan,everything is slower there,but there should be
no difficulty. :

Would there be a chance ofnhaving you/ pete in March and Septmmber? Have
you worked out a definite schedule for both trips?
ixwax The only thing written in my lab in the last months is a longish
note,in Italian,on linkage analysis of F+,Hfr x Fj crosses .It whould
have given a efinite proof of incor plete pairing,but it has not.There is
a leak, tran hich Jacob and Wollmann's hypotheses,somewhat complicated
ad hoc,can enter. I am sending you separately prasfs a copy of the proofs,
just in case you like to exercise your own skill on the paper:the language
in which it is written representing the nost interesting side of itjzin
view of yourtprospects. :
Maccacaro will be working close to my lab,in the Niicrobiology Department
of the University,starting with this eeademic year. He is the only person
with whom I can agekange ideas on my problems, so it will be pleasantito
have him close. Calef is spending a year with Luria,as you probably know.
At the moment T have nobody working with me,at least on fundamental pro-
blems, and 1 find solitude depressing.hy own plans are to analyse Hfr-lin-
kages with some detail,»s well as some selected short regions,unless [
come across something more exciting. I will probably keep trespassing into
human genetics for occasional diversion. .
I was sorry that you did not join in the paper on mathematics of transducti
I amafpaid there might be loopholes in the mathematics,and a through che-
ecking would have been useful; moreover,I] was in want of a bright idea,to
explain why there is about one crossover per break,and I hoped you would
offer one. Also, I consider it very difficult to distinsuish fixed from
random breaks. I shall probably rewrite the pnapner,in iany casesyour suze e-
stions will be welc:me. Of wouy Fo werd be ke ewe the twee why
Our fourth boy is expected sone tine at the beginning of December. Alba tas
reached a considerable si@e,that made us actually fear a multiple birth,
but perhaps we had just forzotten what sizes are ncermal in pregnancy. Tow-
ever no X-ray has been taten,and we shall not know for some. other time.
All the best to you and Esther. It is sood that you have wade up your mind
to crosd@ the Atlantic next year. ~
Yours

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