AIR MAIL
April 12, 1946
Dr. William Seifriz
Botanical Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania
38th Street and Woodland Avenue
Philadelphia 4, Pennsylvania
Dear Selfriz:
It is a pleasure to hear from you once in a while, and perhaps some time I shall be
able to write an article for the planned JOURNAL OF PROTOPLASM.
I am very much interested in the structure of proto-plasm and I wish that I knew more
about the facts which have been gathered that are pertinent.
It is very easy to answer your question, about the Heitler-London bond. This bond
is indeed very important in biology, and also in chemistry—it is, in fact, nothing
more than the shared-electron-pair bond of Gilbert Newton Lewis, which is itself,
of course, the structural feature which is usually represented by the dash of the
organic chemist. I have not read Schroedinger's little book, but I am not surprised
that he is somewhat confused by these points, because he has never paid very much
attention to chemistry.
By the way, I do not think that you should speak of the "Pauling hydrogen bond".
The hydrogen bond has a considerable history during the decade or so before 1928,
when I became especially interested in it.
Sincerely yours,
LP:par Linus Pauling
