Document embnrGDL0xKzgQVmmgNO2XV4M

July 22, 1964 Dr. Martin Rubin Associate professor. Biochemistry Georgetown University Hospital 3800 Reservoir Road, N.W. Washington 7, D. C. (20207) Dear Doctor Rubin: I am most grateful for your letter of July 16th, and I am indeed pleased that you have taken my comments in stride and in the spirit in which they were offered. It was not my intention to speak with the voice of God on any of the matters at issue, and I cannot remember a time, even in my younger, presumably more brash days, when I was disposed to render ex cathedra pronoucements, or to consider my views as correct in the face of experimental evidence. If you have got under my skin by your comments on these matters, it is because I regard very few virtues in; a scientist as more important than skepticism, and I trust that I am, by conviction and performance, a scientist, albeit not exactly a cold and completely objective scientist. To one other point in your letter I may react, perhaps with propriety, in suggesting that the inquiry of the physician may not have been as both you and the man in A.M.A. headquarters thought, addressed to the question of the precision of analyses. I think it was much broader than that and that the questioner wanted help in appraising the significance of the analytical findings, tty reason being that I have encountered this question repeatedly in similarly cryptic form. Therefore I wrote to him, directly. I might extend my comments about your letter to include other matters, but little would be gained thereby, in view of the much better opportunity which would be furnished by a direct discussion of several aspects of this matter. It would be a fine idling to have you pay us a visit and to discuss the subject of chelation (or any variant of this subject which you might choose) at one of our seminars for graduate students during the autumn quarter. I shall look into this and find out the open dates (the schedule is being worked out at present by one of my associates). In any case I am delighted that you would accept an invitation to visit us. There are many features of the metabolism of the ''trace metals" that are in great need of elucidation, and even the direction which should be taken by investigators in this field must be determined on the basis of theoretical Kg' 0015179 Dr. Martin Rubin - (2) - July 22, 1964 and applied chemistry, among other considerations. I need not tell you that my knowledge in this field is scanty. At this time, on the eve of my retirement, I would like to consider with some care, and with the help of experts in and out of our staff, how our work in this field can be extended productively in the future. It is not up to me to set the future course of this Laboratory in this or any other matter, but I may, perhaps, prevent a lapse, while the new head is making his plans. Cordial ly yours. RAK:vr Robert A. Kehoe, M.D.