95clearly going places: Ewald, pp. 287–94; Max von Laue – biographical. Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901–1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1967. Ewald’s account (in the section ‘In Memoriam’) is entitled ‘My development as a physicist’ and is MvL’s ‘autobiography’, reconstructed by Ewald. Von Laue had drafted the work under two working titles: ‘My development as a physicist’, and ‘Ausklang’ (‘Diminuendo’). He was killed in a traffic accident in Berlin in 1960. His ‘autobiography’ makes fascinating reading and includes a gripping and witty account of his incarceration in England after the fall of Germany.
95his ‘favourite disciple’: Ewald, p. 34.
95a conversation about crystals: Ewald, p. 293. The student was Paul Ewald, who became a distinguished crystallographer and edited Fifty Years of X-Ray Diffraction.
95nicknamed ‘His Majesty’: Ewald, p. 292.
95The first experiment: Ibid, p. 294.
96the arrangement of those spots: Ibid, p. 294.
96On 8 June 1912: Ibid, p. 295.
97sent to Würzburg: Max von Laue – biographical. Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901–1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1967
97a catch-up ceremony: this was held on 1–3 June 1920. The laureates who attended were Fritz Haber (Chemistry, 1918), Charles Barkla (Physics, 1917), Max Planck (Physics, 1918), Richard Willstätter (Chemistry, 1915), Johannes Stark (Physics, 1919) and Max von Laue (Physics, 1914). Photographs and movie footage of the group are at: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1914/laue-docu.html.
97enough promise to be appointed: Andrade & Lonsdale, pp. 278–85.
98a primitive X-ray tube: Ibid, p. 312; Phillips, William Lawrence Bragg, p. 78.
98X-rays consisted of particles: Ibid, p. 82–3; Andrade & Lonsdale, pp. 282–3.
99singularly happy’ in Adelaide: Ibid, p. 282; Tomlin S.G. Bragg, Sir WH. Australian Dictionary of Biography 1979, vol 7. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bragg-sir-william-henry-5336/text9021 accessed 27 Aug 2017.
99‘inspiring scientific atmosphere’: Phillips, pp. 78–83.
99‘crude research’: Ibid, pp. 83–4.
99the letter arrived: Ibid, p. 88; Hall, p. 33.
100another of those unforgettable bolts: Phillips, p. 75.
100‘Bragg’s Law’: Phillips, pp. 88–9.
100X-ray spectrometer: Andrade & Lonsdale, p. 283; Phillips, pp. 90–1. 100 The results with mica: Ibid, pp. 89–90.
100Lawrence dashed off a letter: Ibid, p. 90.
100‘my boy’: Letter from W.H. Bragg to Ernest Rutherford, 5 December 1912. Cambridge University Library, RC B392.
101Lawrence first told the world: Bragg W.L. The diffraction of short electromagnetic waves by a crystal. Proc Camb Phil Soc 1912; 17:43–57.
101Bragg’s paper on mica: Bragg W.L. The specular reflection of X-rays. Nature 1912; 90:219. The paper on halite: Bragg W.L. X-rays and crystals. Sci Progr 1913; 7:372–89. See also Phillips, pp. 90–1.
101‘a new crystallography’: Phillips, p. 91.
101two letters to Nature: Bragg W.H. X-rays and crystals. Nature 1912; 90:219; Bragg W.H. X-rays and crystals. Nature 1912; 90:360.
101this off-hand treatment: Phillips, p. 92.
101Bragg Senior made amends: Ibid, p. 92.
102their book: Bragg W.H., Bragg W.L. X-Rays and Crystal Structure. London: G Bell & Sons Ltd, 1915.
102recruited by Rutherford: Andrade & Lonsdale, p. 284–5.
102several pointless months: Phillips, p. 93.
102a summons to the War Office: Phillips, pp. 93–4; Van der Kloot W. Lawrence Bragg’s role in the development of sound-ranging in World War I. Notes Rec Roy Soc 2005; 59:273–84.
103died of his wounds: Phillips, p. 94; Van der Kloot, p. 275.
103Lawrence wrote home: Phillips, p. 94, Van de Kloot, p. 276.
103To celebrate: Phillips, p. 94.
103‘Operation Disinfection’: Dunikowska M., Turko L. Fritz Haber, The damned scientist. Angewandte Chemie 2011;50:10050–10062. Doi 10.1002/anie.201105425. To balance the equation, the poison gas phosgene (even nastier than chlorine) was introduced in 1915 by the Nobel prizewinning French chemist, Victor Grignard.
104never tried to excuse his work: Dunikowskw & Turko, above.
104whose life had turned grim: Jones M.E. 1953, pp. 93–4.
104When Reich officials: Ibid, p. 88.
104Ninety-three intellectuals: this open letter became known as the ‘Manifesto of the Ninety-Three’ (see below).
105the Rockefeller Institute and Hospital were rebranded: Corner, pp. 138–40.
105Charles Sutton had become: McKusick V.A. Walter S. Sutton and the physical basis of Mendelism. Bull Hist Med 1960; 34: 494–6; Crow E.W., Crow J.F. 100 years ago: Walter Sutton and the chromosome theory of heredity. Genetics 2002; 160:3–4.
106The citation for Haber: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1918/haber-bio.html.
106his Nobel lecture, 1922: Bragg W.L. The diffraction of X-rays by crystals. Nobel Lectures, 6 Sept 1922. In: Nobel Lectures in Physics, 1901–1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 370–82.
106his father had given the reason: Letter from W.H. Bragg to Ernest Rutherford, 12 May 1920. Royal Institution Archives, MS WHB 11A/24.
106‘his life ran quietly’: Jones M.E. 1953, p. 93.
107The Physiological Congress: Ibid, p. 94. Congress Programme: Proceedings of XIth International Physiological Conference, Edinburgh, 22–24 July 1923. Q J Exp Physiol 1923; 13 (suppl):1–243.
107a vitriolic piece: Anon. Letter from German intellectuals to the Civilised World. New York Times 2 March 1922.
107The ‘Manifesto of the Ninety-Three’: this is reprinted in full in: Professors of Germany. ‘To the Civilised World’. North Amer Rev 1919; 210:284–7.
Chapter 9: The sad demise of a promising candidate
109‘formidable difficulties’: Bateson 1913, p. 271; Benson K.R. T.H. Morgan’s resistance to the chromosome theory. Nature Reviews Genetics 2001; 2:469–474.
109his keynote address: Bateson 1922.
111Flexner had failed: Letters from Simon Flexner to Phoebus Levene, 17 Feb 1919 and 9 July 1929, in Flexner Collection, Am Phil Soc Library, Philadelphia.
111a high-profile mugging: Portugal & Cohen, p. 79; New York Evening Post 13 July 1923; letter from Simon Flexner to Phoebus Levene, 14 July 1923, in Flexner Collection, Am Phil Soc Library, Philadelphia.
111a surgical operation: Portugal & Cohen, p. 79; Levene P.A., London E.S. The structure of thymonucleic acid. J Biol Chem 1929; 83:793–802; Fruton J.S. 50 years ago. P.A. Levene and 2-deoxy-D-ribose. Trends in Biochem Sci 1979; 4:49–51.
112Pavlov had recently begun marketing: Specter M. Drool. The New Yorker 24 Nov 2014. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/drool.
112The mystery ingredient: Levene P.A., Mikeska L.A., Mori T. On the carbohydrate of thymonucleic acid. J Biol Chem 1930; 85:785–7.
112a closed ‘cyclic’ shape: Takahashi H. Über fermentative Phosphorierung der Nucleinsäure. J Biochem Japan 1932; 16:463–81.
112Any evidence that challenged: Portugal & Cohen, p. 82–6; Klug J. Commentary on Gáspár Jékeley’s article in EMBO Reports, July 2002. EMBO Reports 2002; 3:1024.
113by writing a book: Levene & Bass, 1931.
113Kossel had already written: Jones M.E., pp. 94–5.
113remembered with respect: Zum Gedächtnis. Albrecht Kossel. Hoppe-Seylers Zeitschrift für Physiol Chemie 1928; 74:125–30.
113he wished to be remembered: Kossel, 1928.
114‘biologically the most important’: Ibid, p. vii.
114Bohr argued that life: Bohr 1933.
114Herman Muller’s prediction: Muller H. Variation due to changes in the individual genes. American Naturalist 1922; 56:32–50.
115‘like carriages on a train’: Kossel 1912.
115‘of the first importance’: Kossel A. Herter Lecture, ‘The proteins’. Bull Johns Hopk Hosp 1912; 23:65–75.
115characteristically blunt: Le
vene P.A. The chemical individuality of tissue elements and its biological significance. J Am Chem Soc 1917; 39:828.
116an unrefusable offer: Lewis E.B. Thomas Hunt Morgan and his legacy. The Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1933. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1933/morgan-article.html.
116that highly profitable seam: Smith D. The first genetic linkage map. From the Caltech Archives, 21 March 2013. www.caltech.edu/news/first-genetic-linkage-map-38798.
116Bridges had shown: Bridges C. Non-disjunction as proof of the chromosome theory of heredity. Genetics 1916; 1:1–52, 107–63. This was another milestone: the very first paper in Genetics, which rapidly became the world’s leading journal in the field.
116the novelist H.G. Wells: Lewis, above.
116the attention of the Nobel Prize Committee: Morgan won the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, for demonstrating ‘the relationships of genetics to physiology and medicine’. See Lewis, above.
116Edmund Wilson described the gene: Wilson E.B. The Physical Basis of Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928, p. 46.
Chapter 10: Inventions and improvements
119the 1919 Christmas Lectures: Andrade & Lonsdale, p. 286.
119a ‘Juvenile Audition’: Ibid, p. 285.
120The Royal Institution had been conceived: Thomas J.M. Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: the Genius of Man and Place. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, 1991.
121the ‘ruthless’ Scottish chemist: Ibid, p. 286; Armstrong H.E. Obituary. Sir James Dewar, 1872–1923. J Chem Soc 1928; 0:1066–76.
122‘the forlorn feeling of a harbour’: Bragg L., Caroe G.G. Sir William Bragg FRS (1862–1942). Notes & Records Roy Soc Lond 1962; 17:162–82.
122‘charm and suavity’: Andrade & Lonsdale, p. 287.
122His own Christmas Lectures: Ibid, p. 286–7; James F.A.J.L. Christmas at the Royal Institution: an Anthology of Lectures. New York: World Scientific, 2007.
122to talk about Wave Theory: Andrade & Lonsdale, p. 288.
123she made herself conspicuous: Andrade & Lonsdale, p. 286; Lonsdale K., Reminiscences, in Ewald, pp. 595–6.
123a scholarship to Cambridge: Hodgkin, pp. 21–7.
123began collecting Firsts: Hall, pp. 25, 46; Olby 1974, pp. 44–7; Bernal 1963, pp. 1–3.
124a close-knit team: Ibid, pp. 2–3.
124exact guide: Astbury W.T., Yardley K. 1924. Tabulated data for the examination of the 230 space-groups by homogeneous X-rays. Phil Trans Roy Soc A 1924; 224:221–257.
124‘the most exciting years’: Bernal 1962, p. 522.
125from odds and ends: Ibid, p. 523.
125His own laboratory was underground: Ibid, p. 525; Hodgkin, p. 30.
125Bernal ‘on his knees’: Lonsdale, Reminiscences, in Ewald, p. 59–62.
125‘crazy experiments’: Bernal 1962, p. 525.
125‘the presiding genius’: Ibid, p. 524.
125‘slapdash and imaginative’: Ibid.
125At the informal gatherings: Ibid.
125the graphite samples were swept away: Ibid, pp. 523–4.
126‘None of those there’: Ibid, p. 525.
126His team marched steadily: Phillips, pp. 99–101.
126an exceedingly clever process: Ibid, p. 101; Olby 1974, pp. 38–9.
127sent Bragg a copy: Ibid, p. 44. Lonsdale K. The structure of the benzene ring. Nature 1928; 122:810.
127Bragg wrote approvingly: Lonsdale, Reminiscences, in Ewald, p. 599.
127Lonsdale’s sojourn in Leeds: Ibid, pp. 599–602.
127Both were called for interview: Hall, p. 57.
127A couple of hours after: Andrade & Lonsdale, p. 288.
128a single human hair: Hall, p. 55.
128Bragg received a letter: Ibid, p. 59.
Chapter 11: Movable type
131Case No. 272: The typical clinical picture is given in Osler, p. 514–26. Treatment during the pre-antibiotic era is reviewed in Mathison A.S. Treatment of pneumonia. Brit Med J 1911; i:1450–2. See also Thomas D.P. The demise of blood-letting. J Roy Coll Phys Edin 2014; 44:72–7 and Stadie W.C. Construction of an oxygen chamber for the treatment of pneumonia. J Exp Med 1922; 35:323–5.
132taken immediately: acknowledged in Fred Griffith’s papers as the source of clinical specimens from Smethwick; Hayes, p. 385.
133hence the name ‘pneumococcus’: conferred by Fraenkel in 1886, later renamed Diplococcus pneumoniae (1920) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (1977). See Watson D.A., Musher D.M., Jacobson J.W. A brief history of the pneumococcus in biomedical research: a panoply of scientific discovery. Clin Infect Dis 1993; 17:913–24.
133virulence hinged on the capsule: Ibid, p. 914–5.
133Antibodies were readily raised: Ibid, p. 915. Early vaccines against the pneumococcus were largely ineffective for the same reason, e.g. Sir Almroth Wright’s trial in over 11,000 South African gold-miners: Wright A.E., Morgan W.P., Colebrook L. Observations on prophylactic inoculation against pneumococcus infections, and on the results which have been achieved by it. Lancet 1914; 1:1–10, 87–95.
133discovered by Friedrich Neufeld: Neufeld; also Kleine F.K. Fred Neufeld. Zum Gedächtnis. Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten 1947; 127:185–6 (obituary).
134the crucial defence: The process of making inedible bacteria suitable for phagocytosis – ‘opsonisation’ (from the Greek, ‘preparing for eating’) – was described by Isaeff. See Watson, above, pp. 914–5.
134Types I, II and III: Neufeld F., Händel L. Über die Herstellung von Pneumokokkenserum und über die Wirkung des Pneumokokkenserums. Arb Kais Gesundheitsamt 1909; 34:166–81.
134Neufeld was unimpressed: Neufeld, p. 148.
134wrote to ask for samples: cited in Eichmann K. Fred Neufeld and pneumococcal serotypes: foundations for the discovery of the transforming principle. Cell Mol Life Sci 2013: 70:2225–36.
135a young American bacteriologist: Heidelberger M., Kneeland Y., Price K.M. Alphonse Raymond Dochez. A Biographical Memoir. Washington DC: Natl Acad Sci, 1971: 27–46.
135this ragbag group: Dochez A.R., Gillespie L.J. A biological classification of pneumococci by means of immunity reactions. J Am Med Assoc 1913; 61:727–32.
135‘the American scrapheap’: Dubos 1976, pp. 101–2.
135enjoy greater success: Ibid, pp. 102–3.
135succeeded his mentor: McCarty 1985, p. 77; Neufeld, pp. 150, 187.
135‘grim and almost sordid’: William McD Scott, obituary, J Path (below), p. 321; Downie, p. 2. Downie gave the Fourth Fred Griffith Memorial Lecture on 11 April 1972 to replace Colin MacLeod, who had died on 12 February (see p. 376).
136A man who was perfectly at ease: Méthot.
136‘a civil servant and proud of it’: S.D. Elliott, quoted in Olby 1974, p. 170.
136‘immensely hard-working’: Pollock, p. 7.
136‘a lovable personality’: Hayes, p. 385.
136just one paper: the account of Griffith being forced into the cab is from V.D. Allison, quoted in Pollock, p. 7. His lecture was on ‘The agglutination of haemolytic streptococci’.
136‘reluctant to write papers’: Pollock, p. 7.
136seen more of the world: Méthot, p. 312; Anonymous. Obituary. William McDonald Scott, 1884–1941. J Path 1941; xx:318–24.
137their ‘dry wit’: William McD Scott, obituary, J Path (above), p. 321.
137his family: William McD Scott, obituary, J Path (above), p. 322. Griffith’s bachelor flat: Méthot, p. 319.
137sitting with his dog: This photo was taken in the summer of 1936 by Alvin Coburn, an American bacteriologist, who visited Griffith in Brighton after hearing his lecture on ‘The agglutination of haemolytic streptococci’ (above). Coburn later gave a copy to Oswald Avery, who kept it for the rest of his life: Coburn 1969.
138most cases of lobar pneumonia: Griffith 1922.
138isolated distinct strains: Griffith 1923.
138The difference between S (virulent) and R (harmless): McCarty 1985, p. 73.
139These �
��transformed’ pneumococci: Griffith 1928.
140Neufeld’s visit to Dudley House: McCarty 1985, p. 77.
141‘scepticism and disbelief: Sir Graham Wilson, leading British bacteriologist, quoted in Pollock, p. 10. Wilson added that ‘none dared express their doubts in public.’
141Neufeld’s paper: Neufeld F., Levinthal W. Beiträge zur Variabilität der Pneumokokken. Zeitschrift für Immunitätforschung 1928; 55: 324–340.
141The author was Hobart Reimann: Reimann H.A. The reversion of R. to S. pneumococci. J Exp Med 1929; 49:237–249.
142a farewell review article: Griffith F. Serological Races of Pneumococci. In: A system of bacteriology in relation to medicine. Medical Research Council. Edinburgh: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1929, pp. 201–225.
142‘now up to the chemists’: Griffith to S.D. Elliott, quoted in Pollock, p. 10.
Chapter 12: Transformational research
143It was said later of Fred Griffith: Anonymous. Frederick Griffith. Obituary. Lancet 1941; 237:588.
143born in Halifax: Dubos 1977, pp. 47–50.
144His conversion to bacteriology: Dubos 1977, pp. 49–50.
144Avery’s research emporium: Dubos 1976, pp. 77–80.
144Descriptions of the man: Ibid, pp. 161–2.
145his graphic lectures about infections: Dubos 1976, pp. 83, 165.
145an Avery Lab Christmas party: the photograph is reproduced in Cobb, Plate 3.
145At his laboratory bench: Ibid, p. 173; McCarty 1977, pp. 42–4.
145‘rather large quantities’: Ibid, pp. 44–5.
145‘the most stimulating and gracious person’: Dubos 1976, p. 47.
146‘his low spirits’: McCarty 1977, p. 45.
146On being telephoned: Dubos 1976, p. 162.
146‘reflection and regeneration’: McCarty 1985, p. 71; see https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/CCGMFN which includes a photo of Avery on holiday, in jacket and tie.
146‘Fess’ and ‘Doh’: Dubos 1977, p. 52; McCarty 1985, p. 62.
146‘a good deal of time at the opera’: Heidelberger M., Kneeland Y., Price K.M. Alphonse Raymond Dochez. A Biographical Memoir. Washington DC: Natl Acad Sci, 1971: 27–46; see pp. 34, 39.
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