August 11, 1939

Professor A. R. Todd

Director of the Chemical Laboratories

The University of Manchester

Manchester, 13

Dear Alex:

I am glad that you found our Wrinch article satisfactory. I am hoping that there will be no rebuttal to it, and that the cyclol episode can be considered closed, but in any case I should try to have the rebuttal as short and straightforward as Wrinch can be made to make it.

I have been having some fun this spring trying to devise a theory of the color of dyes. This work has gone along very well but calculations are so complex that not many can be done in a finite time.

Yesterday we had the bad luck to have an explosion in the Crellin Laboratory, as a result of the accidental spilling of a large amount of ether. The big laboratory on the south end of the top floor was pretty thoroughly wrecked, with all the windows blown out and fume cabs and some of the chemical desks destroyed. Fortunately no one was badly injured and the loss is covered by insurance.

Dr. English, with the aid of Haagen-Smit and Bonner, has synthesized the cell proliferation hormone on which he has been working for three years. It is a l,10-decene dicarboxylic acid, with a double bond in the 1,2 position. I think that a lot of additional work can be done in this field. English has gone to Yale where he is to be instructor.

With best regards to you and Alison, I am

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:ehl