In his letter Watson was looking forward to Crick's appointment as visiting professor of biochemistry in spring, 1959, and described his theory for the action of cancer-causing viruses.
Item is handwritten.
Number of Image Pages:
2 (439,455 Bytes)
Date:
1958-04-12 (April 12, 1958)
Creator:
Watson, James D.
Recipient:
Crick, Francis
Source:
Original Repository: Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Francis Harry Compton Crick Papers
I enclose the Poly A letters -- Alex comes up here next week -- then we shall talk over the situation -- I am against sending a note to Science -- partly because Morgans [sic] note was so bad but more importantly because I suspect no one of importance will pay any attention to it (Morgan).
I am very pleased that you shall be with us next spring -- it will be difficult to decide which Cambridge we are living in. I now plan to go to Vienna and the Gordon Conf. -- nowhere else -- You will naturally be welcome to stay with us when you are here in June and early July.
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I have a hypothesis on how viruses induce tumors -- it has two parts
1) cells in non dividing tissue (e.g. liver) do not divide because they cannot make DNA precursors to Kornberg live enzymes -- Theory due to Potter and some evidence!
2) DNA viruses must break normal feedback preventing synthesis of DNA precursors
3) This is done by having the viruses bring in the specific DNA to make the necessary enzymes.
4) If the virus is very cytopathogenic, we have T2
5) If the virus is only mildly cytopathogenic we have the pox viruses which cause local proliferation
6) If the virus is only slightly cytopathogenic we have the Ross Sarcoma or Rabbit Pappilloma
Using our favorite argument of simplicity -- I suspect this will be correct
