Fysikalisk Kemiska Inst.
Universitet
Upsala, Sweden
May 2, 1948
Professor Linus Pauling
Balliol College
Oxford, England
Dear Professor Pauling,
I was pleased to learn that the British were not actually starving you. We have
been very well off indeed and much healthier than in Pasadena except for bad colds
at Christmas time when they didn't heat our flat. The only significant food restriction
is meat which has been reduced to 50 grams a day, perhaps a vast quantity by British
standards. An American friend of ours just returned from Finland where he was hungry
all the time though the natives didn't seem malnourished. He said most of the people
were quite openly and insultinlgly [sic] against the Russians.
I think this has been a very profitable year, particularly in broadening my viewpoint
and interests. From a purely scientific point of view I could prabably [sic] have
learned as much or more in America. The most interesting fact discovered so far
is that the sample of serum albumin brought from Pasadena denatures from ten to thirty
times as fast as the local product, depending on how the denaturation is measured.
I don't know why this is so. Stig Claesson is convinced he can measure molecular weights
up to 5,000 by isothermal distillations between samples in a closed and evacuated
vessel in a manner similar to that used for getting activities of salt solutions.
He showed me his apparatus and it looked very pretty in any event, all copper and
silver.
Professor Tiselius has offered me an attractive job for the winter '49-50, possibly
on the adsorption analysis of proteins and protein hydrolysates if their present experiments
along these lines work out satisfactorily. Though I have tentatively accepted this
offer, plans so far in the future are subject to change. I do not know, for one
thing, what effect, if any, this would have on my standing at Caltech. In any
event my wife will probably stay here another year with the children.
This summer we will try to see a little of some other parts of Sweden. I don't
expect to see much of continental Europe but will surely visit Denmark and will try
to see something of either France or England if I can get a reservation on the Cunard
line. I will get back some time in September depending on which of several applications
for a reservation comes through.
Sincerely yours,
[Stanley Swingle]
