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
