November 18, 1943

AIR MAIL

Dr. A.N. Richards

Committee on Medical Research

2101 Constitution Avenue

Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Dr. Richards:

I am leaving for Washington on Sunday, and hope to have the pleasure of talking to you for a few minutes. I shall arrive in Washington on the afternoon of Thanksgiving day, and shall attend a meeting of Division 8 of the NDRC on Friday, November 26. This meeting will, I think, be over by 4:00 or 4:30, so that, if you should be in town and be free at the time, I could come to your office at 5:00 or 5:30. I have made no appointments for Saturday; my train leaves at 5:30 Saturday afternoon.

I would like to tell you about an idea which Dr. Campbell and I have had about penicillin. It occurred to both of us that the efficacy of penicillin might be increased considerably if it could be held in the blood stream for a longer period. This might be accomplished by coupling it to a protein molecule, large enough not to leak out through the kidneys. Human globulin, for example, might be used as this protein. Whether the coupling could be done in such a way as to leave the effectiveness of the penicillin molecule unimpaired could be found only by experiment. The work along these lines could be done most effectively, of course, with knowledge of the structure of penicillin, but some coupling methods might be tried even in absence of this knowledge. The possibility also exists that, even though penicillin itself could not be coupled to protein without loss of activity, some active analog might be synthesized (after the structure of penicillin has been determined) and coupled without loss of activity.

We would be interested in doing work of this sort because of our experience in coupling molecules to proteins. Our blood substitute work is moving alone smoothly and we are beginning to think about other possible jobs. Our program of work in immunochemistry in general is making satisfactory progress, but our artificial antibodies, although they show some productive activity in animal experiments, are not yet sufficiently effective to be of practical value.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:jr

November 18, 1943

Dear Mom,

I was very glad to get yours and Daddy's letters. I was very pleased with Pete's and Crellie's that I received today.

I need socks more than anything else. I take size 10 . The army gave me 7 D shoes. They are plenty big. We have both khaki and grey-white socks.

I am flat broke, but that is not much hardship provided I don't want to go to town or buy something at the PX. We are due some travel pay, but God knows when the army will get around to distributing it.

I am not in need of underwear yet. I do need handkerchiefs, the cheaper the better. They should be white. They get used as washcloths, napkins, dust rags, shoe polishers, and then I blow my nose. Some fun.

If it is too much trouble to mail my ration books to the O.P.A. in Pasadena, send them here and I'll mail them.

If it is not at all possible please send me a shoe stamp. I think that will constitute my first major outlay of money.

I am enclosing the key to my overnight bag. Some of the clothes in it are dirty, I'm afraid.

I'll have to spend more time thinking about Christmas.

The training schedule has changed since Rich was through.

Forgive the writing. I'm trying to finish before the nine o'clock lights-out.

Much love,

Linus

[written on the back of the last page]

Wadley 6425

Mrs Sterling Hendricks

3045 Albemarle N.W.

Washington D.C.

Washington 4:30

Linus am arriving Thursday Nov 25 could stay with you two nights. Wire collect if not convenient.