Document DKb3qjEnQyG97mrbaL452NO

Katharine R. Boucot, M.D., Chief Editor Archives of Environmental Health Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania 3300 Henry Avenue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (19129) July 14, 1964 ilpuJ A, s V V(.*w- 71 M'U / - x t, .0 Dear Katharine: I am writing a letter, instead of using the form with its arrangement for record ing specific criticises, or classified appraisals of manuscripts, in my response to your letter of July 2nd, concerning the manuscript of Tsuchiya and Harashima. (Tsuchiya, I suppose, is a graduate student of Haraghima's, whose work, as such, bears Harashima's approval.) My reason for doing this may impress you as some degree of dodging of the issue, by avoiding the critical consideration of details. I think this is not the case, however, Rather, I think that the authors are using the Archives as a specious means of advancing their prestige. If you take my advice, you will exclude, so far as possible, articles of this type from the Archives, for the simple and logical reason, which will not give offertse and is hardly to be argued with, that the Archives is not the appropriate vehicle for their dissemination. My reason for saying this is that this article, in common with its type, makes much ado about very little. There is, for example, no reference in it to the nature of the compound of lead in the atmosphere, or its state of subdivision of the particles. It makes very little difference, from the aspect of precision, whether one speaks (in the jargon of the field) about the MAC or the TLV, or moves either of these, with a show of precision,from 0.12 to 0.15, for example, when the fact is that one is as safe or precise as the other, if the facts concerning the compound and its subdivision are unrecorded. We have a crude rule of thumb in either instance, and some slight "correction" or "improvement" in it is irrelevant. Within a few years, the significance of such articles will be as little as the whereabouts of the dodo bird. There is some virtue in this article, as there have been in a number of roughly similar articles, in terms of the observations on the chemical and histological deviations in hematology. These in my view do not justify the occupancy of the space that will be required to print them. You may suspect that I am somewhat lacking in patient consideration of these authors, and you may be correct in such a judgment. This paper bores me exceedingly, and perhaps I am tired and less inclined to be generous than usual. Therefore if you wish to submit it to someone else and if he disagrees, I shall not take it amiss. What 1 have said is nevertheless my considered judgment, and if it is not tempered with compassion, it may be a good thing. # 0010463 Katharine R. Boucot, M.D. - (2) - July 14, 1964 I'm going on a vacation to the mountains, shortly, and perhaps, when Z have "lifted up mine eyes unto the hills" I Shall be gentler and kinder. Sincerely, RAK:vr Enel. Robarrt A. Kehoe, M D. K 00i0464