Document 2qbwQv0LOXMvmZemL6agwBL85

2k,November 195? Mr. John V. 0`Reilly 2900 Louisiana Avenue 3fc, Lou is , Missouri Dear Mr. 0`Relllyi A short tin# ago our librarian heard some reference over the radio to your hobby of collecting soil from foreign countries. She was immediately interested in as much an we have been making a systematic study of the lead content of vegetation and other food material in this country and in various other countries* Some portion of this lead which is regularly found in vegetation is derived from the soil* Therefore we have become very much interested in the lead content of soils frees different parts of the earth* Hearing of your collection of soils. Miss Conway was immediately Impressed with this opportunity for our collection of a number of soil samples for analytical purposes* Obviously I do not want to be a source of nuisance and trouble to you* but I wonder if it would be possible for us to obtain a small quantity, perhaps 100 grams, of soil from a number of countries* For our purposes the more recently these soils have been obtained, the more useful they would be. This is particularly true if the soils have been kept in such a way as to perm1 t them to became more or less contaminated by atmospheric dusts* Such dust# contain small quantities of lead and might appreciably influence the lead content of any samplee which we might do tain* If it 1b possiblo for us to obtain such samples, I should be very glad to send you a number of small containers (whatever number you m'ght be willing to make use of) for the purpoee* Moreover I should be very glad to supply you with the results of our analyses if they shomld be of any interest to you* In any case allow me to thank you in advance for your courtesy in replying to N22426 -z Mias Conway and in giving ms this opportunity to writs you further. Sincarely yours. RAKsia Sobart km Kehoe, ' P.3, Mias Conway has called my attention to the fact fcb'at aoms reference was made to the fact that this soil haa been disinfected before bein'; sent to you* If this is the case, it would, of course, be necessary for me to know something of the manner of the disinfec tion* If the soil* were merely heated so as bo kill plant or animal life, it would not influence our results* If they were treated with some chemical disinfectant, that procedure might, of course, make the samples useless for our purposes* RAK, /