IX
Thurs. Nov. 25, 1937
Dear Dr. Pauling:
I am enclosing a letter that I received from Barnard, College
of Medicine of the Univ. of Ill., as well as a copy of the rather
lengthy answer that I wrote today. This guy formulated in '32 some
rather screwy structures for oxyhemoglobin and analogs, and in
a lengthy paper [edit: "1937"] on the reactions of nitrite with hemoglobin derivatives
he proposed a nomenclature for Hb derivatives. He has the hemoferrons for ferroheme
and nitrogenous hemochromogens, as well as ferrohemoglobin; the hemoferryls are polar valent compounds of hemoferron and oxygen-containing gases. Ferriheme and ferrihemoglobin are hemo-ferrins; complexes with electronegative ions (Cl-, CN-) comprise hemoferrides.
Tuesday evening I am leaving for Flagstaff. I'll stop the first night about Barstow,
and get in the following afternoon. GraceMary is due at 9 A.M. Thursday morning.
We will be married the day she arrives. I have taken some tine off for house hunting.
In spite of this being the worst time of the year, I feel that I can get something
not too far from Tech (ca. 2 mi.) for $25 or less. I wish that my gal were here
to go house hunting with me, though.
I do not know whether I have said anything yet or not about the
paper I am writing, 'The Acid Function of the Heme of Hemoglobin and
Myoglobin.' It contains no work of ours except a treatment of the
acid properties of ferriheme. I thought that I should correlate all
of the hours of calculations that I have made, and see if you think
it is significant enough to publish. I will try to finish it up
right away, so that you can read it on the train on the way home.
There turns out to be a very interesting contrast between identical
hemes on hemoglobin and on myoglobin.
I received a pack of reprints from Redfield recently. There is an interesting one
by Joseph Shack on the difference in base binding of oxyhemocyanin and hemocyanin.
These results demand the postulate
of a dibasic acid whose constant is increased on oxygenation. I know of
no other case in physical chemistry where two protons have to dissociate together,
that is where an intermediate product does not exist. [handwritten: "The analogous
effect"] does occur in oxidation and reduction,
though. Could this be a structural peculiarity due to interactions
between the two copper atoms of an individual prosthetic group? The
acid-base relations of hemocyanins are further complicated by the
observation in many bloods of the so-called reversed Bohr effect,
that is, that the oxy-form is a weaken acid than the non-complex form.
I am very sorry that your wife dropped her plans for the camping trip [handwritten:
"near Deep Springs"] with Schomaker said Eyster this week end. I do not think that
it will be very cold. I urged her to leave Peter and Linda at home, and go with
Liny. A sleeping bag fortified with extra blankets would keep them plenty comfortable,
for rain was not expected. I am afraid that she was partly influenced by the fact
that I couldn't go too.
Last Saturday I dropped by your home to give the kids a ride, and was invited to stay
for supper. Lola was sick, so while Mrs. Pauling put the kids to sleep, Liny and
I did the dishes. Schomaker, Eyster, and Levy came over for the evening. I had
a very pleasant time. I am having as hard a tine as your wife in getting time to
march on. I never have seen tine pass so slowly, even when I work like the devil.
I gave Mellor about two hours on the nature of the chemical bond and the value of
magnetic criterion of structure of complexes. He found a note by an Italian saying
that the monovalent cyanide of Ni, K3Ni(CN)4 (red) is diamagnetic. He is going to prepare some and check up on the solution.
He seems very interested in possibilities in this field [handwritten: "and I would
like to have him working for me. I may not have a chance to write you again before
you get home. We all certainly would be glad to see you, though. Pleasant and speedy
trip!
Yours Charles C."]
