The Michael Heidelberger Papers

Title:

Letter from Michael Heidelberger to Simon Flexner, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research

Description:

In this letter to his former boss, Heidelberger critically reviewed experimental evidence on the use of antiserum to type III pneumococcus presented by Hugh K. Ward, an immunologist at Harvard University Medical School, in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 55 (1932). Ward had argued that type III antipneumococcus serum, after absorption with the specific carbohydrate of the pneumococcal capsule, no longer formed a precipitate with the carbohydrate, but nonetheless retained a definite, though diminished bactericidal effect on virulent pneumococci in a bactericidal test. He asserted that this carbohydrate neutralization test was a much more delicate method for detecting the anticarbohydrate antibody (precipitin) than the precipitin test, the type of test Heidelberger and Kendall had used in their quantitative studies of antibody-antigen reactions. Heidelberger charged that Ward's conclusions resulted from methodological and mathematical errors.

Number of Image Pages:

2 (167,718 Bytes)

Date:

1932-04-21 (April 21, 1932)

Creator:

Heidelberger, Michael

Recipient:

Flexner, Simon

Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research

Rights:

This item is in the public domain. It may be used without permission.

Subject:

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):: Precipitin Tests

Exhibit Category:

Antigens and Antibodies: Heidelberger and The Rise of Quantitative Immunochemistry, 1928-1954

Relation:

Letter from Simon Flexner, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research to Michael Heidelberger (May 2, 1932)

Box Number: 2

Folder Number: 21

Unique Identifier:

DHBBGM

Document Type:

Letters (correspondence)

Language:

English

Format:

application/pdf

image/tif

Physical Condition:

Good

Folder: MS C 245 (first finding aid)

Metadata Last Modified Date:

2006-06-08

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