Document gaozJYDr82xB6N1vxrQ936Jv9

/ f CASLE Q RA'MS-. CTHYLPORT, LONDON. t el eg r a ms: ETHYLPORT, CHURTON. Telephone: VI CTORI A 55 20 ETH YL EXPORT CORPORATION i n c o r p o r a t e d in t he St o l e o f De l a w a r e . U . S. A . w i t h l i m i t e d l i ab i l i t y. ABFORD HOUSE, VICTORIA LONDON, S.W.l HeadOffice: 133 EAST 42"- STREET NEW YORK, US A 12th January, 1934. Dr. K. A. Kehoe, University of Cincinnati, CINCINNATI. Ohio. Dear Dr. Kehoe, V As advised you in my letter of the 9th, Dr. Xohn-Ahrest, who as you probably know is Director of the Toxicological laboratory of the Prefecture de Police in Paris, is coming over to this country on Sunday next to interview certain membei*s of the British Ethyl Committee. I have arranged interviews for him with Sir Hebert Robertson, Sir George Buchanan, Mr. J. C. Bridge and Mr. D. R. Pye also Sir Frederick Willis as Chairman of the old Committee. Dr. Kohn-Abrest has been very insistent right along that we dupli cate for him Pfofessor Dixon's work on rabbits. I think you have hit the nail on the head when you suggest he might probably be creating a fictitious problem in order to carry out some private work on his own account. We have done every thing we could to explain to him that the problem that he was creating did not have any direct bearing on our particular question, but he appears to have his mind set on carrying out this work and in order to satisfy him we have had no alternative but to try and get the work carried out. Dr. Boldero has arranged with Pfofessor Dodds of the Courtauld O iro Institute of Biochemistry at the Middlesex Hospital to set up a number of O rabbits and treat them in accordance with the procedure followed by Professor Dixon. When Dr. Kohn-Abrest visits this country next week he will have a talk o with Professor Dodds and examine the rabbits and decide at that time for what o period of time he wishes the work continued. He does not appreciate of course <o the difficulties involved in carrying out this work and is of the opinion that it is quite a simple matter to get hold of a few rabbits and treat them with leaded gasoline. I am very,sorry indeed that we have had to do this work but I could not se any way out of the difficulty other than this, in view of the fact that K$hn-Abrest seemed to have his mind set upon it. I believe we have taken every precaution in seeing that the work will be satisfactorily carried out, and I am assured by Dr. Boldero that Professor Dodds is an extremely able man who would N7764 Dr. R A Kehoe. TO. D a t e 12-1-34 the work will not be done efficiently. I have given Professor Dodds certain extracts from your letter of December 23rd, particularly those which refer to the difficulties involved in the examination of the hair of animals for Lead. As you know it was originally suggested that Dr. Kohn-Abrest end an associate,probably a Dr. Brouardel of the Academy, of Medicine in Paris should visit the United States in order to meet you and discuss the question in detail. This plan was all changed again last week and they decided to visit this country first and to postpone any question of visiting the United States until they had decided whether they required any further information or not. personally I am extremely hopeful that they will be satisfied with their trip over here and give us immediate authorization to proceed in France. One of the reasons that Dr. Kohn-Abrest was not anxious to go across to the States was that he is a bad sailor and was rather afraid of being ill! Personally I would much preferred them to have visited you, since I am sure that after having talked the matter over with you and seen the work that you have done, there would have been no further doubt left in their minds and the matter would have immediately been cleared up. Y/e are, however, more or less in their hands and cannot dictate to them what they shall or shall not do, and I only hope that we shall be able to carry the matter through satisfactorily without any slip up. . Sir Robert Robertson and Sir George Buchanan have both been extremely kind and the former has offered to erect some of the analytical apparatus that he used during the investigation,for Dr. Kohn-Abrests inspection. Mr. Francis, Sir Robert's assistant,who as you may remember carried out most of the work, will be present during the meeting to explain both the equipment and the work done to Dr. Kohn-Abrest. I believe that these meetings will go off quite satisfactc rily. Bordas still appears to be worried about the question of ventilation of garages. As you know when Dr. Cumming was over here last he very kindly made a personal call on Dr. Bordas and explained this question to him in detail. AO In addition I obtained an official letter from the Ministry of Health here stat CD? ing that no cases of Lead poisoning had occurred since the introduction of Ethyl petrol, and further that no regulations governing the ventilation of garages had CO been introduced or considered necessary. One would have thought that this o co assurance on the part of Dr. Cumming, who went to a great deal of trouble on our behalf, and also the Ministry of Health here would have been enough to satisfy Bordas, but the French in general and this Committee in particular seem Ui very much adverse to taking anybody's word for anything, and Bordas when I saw him last Friday night told me that one of the reasons he wished Dr. Kohn-Abrest to come over here was to find out personally from Sir George Buchanan that no regulations regarding special ventilation of garages had been introduced! I am sure that Sir George will be able to satisfy them on this point. The other point that Bordas continually raises is what happens to the Lead dust after it leaves the exhaust pipe of a car? Again one vuld have thought that there is sufficient published evidence to answer this question in full, hut he never appears to be fully satisfied. Dr. it. A. Kahoa TO. dat e 12-1-34. th.au ha has been at any time in the past. I think, therefore, that after Dr. Kohn-Abrest's return to Paris we can look forward with a certain amount of confidence to receiving the authorization that we have waited so long for from Bordas. To return to another subject, I have been having a certain amount of correspondence with Art Mittnacht on the question of litre cans and Patent mixing. I believe I have explained our situation fairly fully and am looking forward to hearing from you what in your opinion is the best method to adopt for the future. I can assure you once more that we are making every effort to reduce to a minimum the number of litre cans used, but in view of the pecul iarities of our business here it is I am afraid impossible to cut these out entirely, ana until we have our business fairly established in all these different countries, we shall have to continue using these containers for experimental work. There is no question of our giving litres to private individuals or even air lines. Practically all the litres we use are mixed by an oil company in one of their depots, and the mixed product only handed cn to the consumer. It is only in very special cases that we supply litres to an aero engine firm or the Government direct, and in these cases we are careful to instruct a responsible member of their organization in the correct handling and mixing. Vie are developing our business slowly and I hope during the present year we shall be able to reduce the number of these containers used very considerably. The question of Patent mixing does not seem to be very greatly improved. We have been able to destroy one or two of the old meters , but there must still be a number in use,the location of which is unknown to us here. I would very pich like to have the opportunity of seeing you again and sincerely hope that one of these days you will be able to pay us a visit, since I know that there are a great many people both in this country and on the Continent who would welcome a visit from you. I rather imagine, however, that you are pretty busy with your own work and would not relish overmuch the idea of paying us a visit. Should you find it possible, however, sometime in the future we should all be very glad indeed to see you. Please give my kindest regards to Mrs Tehoe and Kathleen. V/ith all best wishes for 1934. Kindest n gards, 0007052 TO.. .Jr,., n....A,Jiehoe, da t e ...........12-1-34^ that Jr. Kohn-Abrest is in. bed with influenza and will not, therefore, be-able so make the trip at the time arranged. This is typical of what always seems to happen with our dealings with France, however, Sir Robert Robertson and the others very kindly agreed to postpone their appointments until he\is fit. 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