February 11, 1931

Professor Arthur B. Lamb,

Laboratory of Chemistry,

Harvard College,

Cambridge, Mass.

Dear Professor Lamb:

I wish to submit the accompanying paper entitled "The Nature of the Chemical bond" for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. I realize that the paper is longer than those usually published in the Journal. This is not because it is in any sense a review; except for short introductions describing previous work, only original work is discussed.

The paper could be shortened a little by omitting reference to previous work and by condensing the explanatory discussions of new results; but I feel that this would render it more difficult for chemists to understand what has been done.

The paper seems to me to be primarily of chemical interest, and I hope that it may be published in the Journal of our American Chemical Society; but if prompt publication might be prevented through time-consuming consideration by referees, I must ask you to return the manuscript for I shall then feel obliged to publish it in the Physical Review or in a European journal where quick publication can be secured.

Very truly yours,

LP:M