Title:

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

Creator:

Heidelberger, Michael

Recipient:

Flexner, Simon and Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research

Date:

21 April 1932

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.

Location:

Box: 2. Folder: 21

Rights:

Public Domain

Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Subject:

Precipitin Tests

Format:

Text

Extent:

2 pages

Relation:

Letter from Simon Flexner, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research to Michael Heidelberger, 1932

Language:

English

Legacy ID:

DHBBGM

NLM ID:

101584940X93

Profiles Collection:

The Michael Heidelberger Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584940X93

Story Section:

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